The Prince and The Frog
by AriaYuuki
Summary: Mixed version of Beauty and The Beast and The Princess and The Frog AU. Two kingdom of bitter history and broken monarch, two royals of different lifestyles. When both country was in the state of downfall, can the two royals recover their fallen kingdom and the bitter history between them? Warning: Bloodshed and violent scene. FrUK and several other pairings.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue: Kingdom of France

Sometime in the middle of the 16th century in the country of Europe, there stood the country of France. The country where romance bloomed, filled with peace and prosperity. The capital, Paris stood amidst the land, pouring and spreading passionate love throughout the country.

The land of love was ruled by a King. Being a powerful man, he reigned his country towards a rising golden era. During these moments of time, the country was rich with resources and a wide seas of trades all over the world. People led a good life with a stable income and a healthy lifestyle.

There was also a prince in the kingdom. He was charming, handsome. His look could struck people in the heart. Despite his appearance, he was a snobbish, arrogant prince who only look up to beautiful things. He judged people and things by their looks and he indulged himself in his bed of leisure filled with red wine and red roses while he stayed away from the commoners' life.

The king was worried by his only son's attitude and had tried many ways to teach him the right thing but those always end up in deaf ears. As the prince continue to enjoy his life full of pleasantry, he did not realize things started taking its dark turn…

One night there was a storm in the country, the lightning rolled and the thunder roared in the dark sky. There was a knock on the door, came as a rush.

The prince, apparently passed the door answered it and found him face to face with an old woman. Her skin were wrinkled and her white hair was in a tousled mess. She asked to take shelter from the prince.

The prince, despised her looks shooed her away into the storm, not even having a second thought. When the king questioned about this, he just shook it off. Who would care for an old hag? This thing was soon wiped off from the prince mind.

The effort of the king to build a golden era full of historic means to the country soon crumbled into pieces. Not long after, the country of France was invaded by an unknown force. People lived in fear, the country economy had a drastic drop, famine spread like wild fire across the country. Slowly, the land became barren and many people died of illness and starvation.

The king had come to his last stand, sacrificing himself till the end of protecting the country. Yet, the invasion continued. It was then the invaders entered the elegant castle of France where they met the prince.

"What are you guys doing here? GET OUTTA HERE, NOW!" The prince, unawared of the situation, demanded them.

One of the invaders pull out the cloak to reveal her face, it was the lady whom he had chased out during that stormy night. Pointing towards him, she said, "You, who only adored things on their appearance and does not appreciate inner beauty, is not worth to inherit this prosperous kingdom. I curse thee, to live in misery until when you learned your lesson." With that, they vanished, living the broken down kingdom and the prince alone. Soon, the castle began shaking, the prince and all his servants began to change their form.

Before the prince realized, his body soon took in the form of a green little creature called the frog. And, he will have to continue the rest of his life in that form…

TBC…

Xxx

Hi there, this is my first time writing a fanfiction, so feel free to criticize me if anything goes wrong.

This version of story is literally the mixed version of Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and The Frog series. So, I gotta start here with our first main character, the prince of France. Hehe, you all should know who he is…

The real storyline will soon take place with more characters to be introduced. So, stay tuned!

I do not own Hetalia, Beauty and the Beast nor The Princess and The Frog.


	2. Chapter 2

Prologue: Kingdom of England

A little North-west from the country of France laid a beautiful green island country known as England. Throughout the year, this country was blessed with lush green trees and plentiful of rainwater that would keep the land moisture so that food supply is always enough for the people.

It was rumoured that fairies co-exist with humans in the country and they can interact with each other. People believed that this paradise was blessed by the fairies to have rich resources and a beautiful piece of land.

Despite being the neighbouring country of France, the two countries, however, rivaled each other. This hatred had seeped deeply in both countries since hundreds of years ago where the two royals of both countries argued over each other that caused wars between the two. Since then, the two countries were separated by an iron curtain that prevented the two countries from interacting.

The kingdom of England was also gifted by a wise old king. People respected him for his wisdom and feared him for his power. During his reign, the country was blossom with peace and fortune. Crops were produced in large amount, livestock were rich and food was not a problem. From Elizabethan Era to Victorian Era, the country were filled with unique cultures that nowhere else could compared.

Towards the late years of the king, however, things began to change like the fate of the kingdom of France as well. As things has gotten worse, the kingdom began to sink into the realm of darkness. The golden colour of the country faded and its fruits began to wilther, no longer a pretty bloom.

People may think that the fairies power has ceased or devil has fallen upon them but it was neither. Nobody knew what lead to the country's downfall, no one knew what happened during that fateful day among the monarch. It continued to remain hidden beneath rumours lingering around by those who claimed to be witnesses.

Yet, nobody realized that the arrival of this day is to bring back the past and mend it before it was too late. The fate of the kingdom lied in the hands of the royals. Soon, a new page and history of the two rivalling countries is about to begin…

TBC…

Xxx

Aww… Too short! I have tried to write this as long as possible…

Anyway, there will be no characters be reveal in this chapter but I guess some of you could have guess who I am referring to in this chapter. The characters will soon be on stage on the next chapter, and I'm gonna write as long as I could. XD

Enjoy reading and feel free to R&R. Stay tuned for the next chapter! As always, I own nothing but just the story plot.


	3. Chapter 3

_Alright, the storyline will commence from here! Enjoy!_

Chapter 1: Half-Commoner, Half-Prince of England

Everyone in the country of England knew him, everyone of different hierarchy and status recognized his looks and whoever that knew about him respected him.

His name was Arthur Kirkland, the youngest son of the current king. He has a rather lean and slender body build, making him look rather petite. Yet, his stunning eyes with the shades of emerald showed great determination in him. People recognized the thick bushy eyebrows as the signature of the Kirkland family just above his eyes. Despite his usually scowling appearance, he was actually a gentleman from his heart.

Being the son of a king, however, Arthur did not lead a laid back lifestyle like his siblings. That was because his mother was a commoner and a concubine of the king, so he did not have the privilege to enjoy the palace life. Arthur lived with his mother throughout the time and he loved her very much because she was the only one whom he could turn in to.

It wasn't until at the age of 15 when his mother passed away. That time, Arthur only got to learn his true identity with the king, his own father. The king took Arthur in under his care after that.

xXx

Just like his usual routine, Arthur would shut himself in his room studying and reading his favourite books. This is one of his favourite pastimes in the castle, seeing that he could distance himself from people and learned many things that he once did not learn during his childhood.

He could hear people shouting outside, trying to sell some of their fresh products in the market. Arthur shifted his attention to the windows outside and watched in envy as the people walked around freely in the street while he ended up being a caged bird.

Ever since his life began another new arc, Arthur had started to miss those days of his childhood. Living in the castle is always full of leisure but Arthur couldn't accept the fact that his freedom was taken away in exchange of this luxury life. He missed those times he spent together with his friends in the meadow. He wants to be free like those times he lived together with his mother. He wished to have someone as gentle as his mother to understand him.

"It's a nice day today." He thought to himself while standing up. He changed into a more casual outfit, ready to go out for a walk since he missed those times as a child. He grabbed along one of the books he planned to read.

"Artie brother, you are up early today!" Out of the hallways, he met his half-sister, Iris Kirkland.

Iris was the princess of England and the only daughter of the king. She was a year younger than him and Arthur loved her like his own sister. She had silky long brownish hair and a pair of amethyst eyes she inherited from her mother, the late queen, her smile is so angelic that it would seduce people to spoil her.

"I'm planning to go out for a walk." Iris is the only person Arthur could trust in this castle. But then, she is still a child and a princess, so she does not fully understand Arthur's situation.

"Aww…" Iris pouted at her half-brother's reply. "I thought I could have my time with you…"

"There's always another time. We will play some other time, okay?" Arthur tried to persuade her. Surprisingly, she gladly accepted and bought his words.

"It's okay. I know father has high expectation from you and work is not always easy." With that, she left Arthur alone.

Arthur watched her back as she left, thanking her for understanding him. After regaining his composure, he left for the kitchen to collect some needy stuff. He managed to smuggle some dairy product, meat and vegetable to be taken out of the castle.

Once he made sure he had collected enough stuff, he went to get his horse to head off to the market place. Just then, he heard someone calling him.

"Hey there, where yer think yer goin'?" He recognized that voice, it was one of his half-brother Scott.

He turned his back to face his three other brothers. Scott is the eldest among all of them and is always smoking. The second prince, Duncan has his dyed red hair cut in punk hairstyle and has a scar on his face. The third one looked almost the same as Scott and his name is known as Dylan.

"Ay ye tyin' to take those things with ye?" Duncan asked, a smirk appeared on his face. "Mind those poor people outside. You are considered lucky that you are one of the royal bloodline." Dylan added.

Arthur rolled his eyes at them. Royals really don't understand in a commoner's place. Well, except him since he is also part of the commoner. "To be specific, I'm a half royal and half commoner. I am different from all of you, royals who take advantage of the commoner." Arthur corrected them and emphasized his status.

"And haughty and sarcastic enough to be a royal…" Scott chirped in and the three of them laughed. "If ye dare te' go ta' market again, we'll tell father 'bout tis." Duncan threatened him. "We will tell him that you stole our food supply and used it to feed the prisoners in the prison." Dylan joined in as well.

"So what?! Tell him the entire hell if you bloody dare to!" Arthur yelled back. "Isn't it caring for your people need is part of your fucking job?!"

"What fucking foul language for a prince!" Duncan exclaimed and slapped Arthur hard on the face. "It's unbelievable that people would respect such a person!" Dylan joked as well. "Oh, come on! He is such a pretender!" With that, they burst into laughers and walked away.

Arthur could felt the stinging pain from his cheeks. Both his face and eyes were red. He could felt his rage building up in him that his palm clenched into a fist. But who would listen to him? His father may be too busy to listen to his complaint and Iris is too young to understand so he just shook it off trying to find something else to forget about it. And the only way to forget about it is to head off to the market place before it is getting late, so he leaped onto his horse and headed off.

xXx

The market square was tightly packed with people. Businessmen and traders yelling and shouting at their stalls trying to attract customer attention. Buyers would argue the about having the reasonable price and demanding for the best quality. Some children would run in the street chasing each other. Arthur smiled a little seeing the lively countryside of his hometown is always the best place in the country.

"It seems like the awesome prince had arrived! Kesesese~" A young man with silvery white hair and blood red eyes loudly announced the prince's arrival, which annoyed him a little.

"Not so loud, Gilbert."

"No. Cos' the awesome me is the prince's best friend!" He boasted.

"Aren't I am also one the prince's companion?" Another teenager with brown messy hair and green eyes appeared next to him, somehow wanting to join along.

"Gilbert, Antonio, can you two stop the fuck right now?" Arthur demanded, annoyed by the attention they have gotten for him.

"Oh, come on, we are your awesome friends." Gilbert smirked. "Aren't a prince is supposed to be treated rightfully by his people?" Antonio laughed a little.

"Not when I was kid and live as a commoner." Arthur snorted and retorted back.

"Nah, who cares and who knows back then? Now you are the prince! Kesesese~ So, shall we start our business today?"

Arthur couldn't help but smiled at his companion. Gilbert Beilschmidt and Antonio Fernandez Carriedo were his childhood friend since he was young. They would play together in the meadow and work together. Though he doesn't really like with their personality of being loud, obnoxious and sometimes can be quite annoying but the three really shared a friendly bond towards each other.

Very soon, their stalls had become the center of attention. They distributed food supply and medical needs to the poor villagers, much to people delight of their prince kindness. Once the supplies were given out, Arthur would take a stroll around the market place together with his friends.

"Madam, are you alright?" While walking in the market, he noticed a gang of people bullying an old lady who is trying to sell her stuff. Apparently, the people were trying to steal the old lady's things while she caught them in the act and tried to stop them. The people in the other hand said that they lived in poverty and cannot afford their living needs so they have to steal.

"Living in poverty maybe a problem but it was still not good to steal. You should find a job instead so that you can secure your job and get a better living." Arthur managed to break the fight and advised the people not to repeat their mistake. He also helped paying the old woman in their stead, which earned praising from the crowd.

"Aren't you a little too kind?" Gilbert asked him. "They may take advantage on you."

"It's the same thing for you to steal people's food when you are young." Arthur retorted back. "I trust them just like I trust you to change for the better."

"You are really an honourable prince, Arthur." Antonio praised. "Such a gentleman!"

Gilbert and Antonio left for work later and Arthur continued to wander around the neighbourhood. Sometimes people would dragged him into their home to treat him a meal which he gladly accept them. He would visit sick people and help to cure them with his magic power. Yes, Arthur mastered magic at young age and learned by himself. He also has the abilities to communicate with fairies much like other people of England. The children who spotted him would surrounded him and asked him to tell them a story. He likes to spend his time together with his people. He once had the same lives as them and now he is serving the country, he should serve his people well.

Arthur arrived back in the castle ground at late evening, tired but content of today's trip. He managed to return back to his room without running into his brothers. That was good, he thought, he wouldn't want them to ruin his currently cloud nine mood.

xXx

During dinner time, the king and his children gathered around the long dinner table along with other nobles. At this point, however, Arthur felt his heart sank. He could felt the tense atmosphere in dining table, though it was the nobles saying that talking while eating is a lack of proper table manners, but this was not the usual feeling he had, even Iris who was full of life just sat silently on her place eating her food. The only sound could be heard was the clanking of the utensils and the sound of flowing alcohol. Arthur would sometimes receive eye contact from his brothers, either a wink, a glare, a smirk or a creepy smile which sent shivers down his spine.

Unable to bear with the tense atmosphere, Arthur quickly finished his food and excused himself and retreated back to his room. What was wrong with everyone today? Why was everyone at the table so tense? He couldn't find an answer to that. Is something going to happen?

He spent the rest of the night in his room reading his favourite books. He wasn't aware that it was the time to go to bed. Just as he was so engrossed in his reading, he suddenly heard knocks on the door.

Who could it be at the late of this night? He closed his book and went to answer the door. He was surprised to be greeted by the king, his father standing by the doorway.

Xxx

I'm back! As I promised, this chapter is a lot longer than the previous one. So, do you like it?

**Arthur** (**England**) will be our main character (of course!) and he act as the role as Belle/ Princess. He is such a gentleman! And he is the child of the king and concubine. Poor Arthur, I am so sadistic that I would make him being bullied by his brothers and Gilbert (but he is a friend!). Oh, sorry Arthur.

Other characters:

**Iris** (**Ireland**) - Princess of England. Since it was mentioned that Ireland would be a girl. I would portray Ireland to be younger, so that she is kinder and gentler (and cuter) to her brother.

**Scott** (**Scotland**) – Eldest brother and the first crown prince. I heard Scotland likes to smoke so that's why I said it.

**Duncan** (**Northern Ireland**) – Second prince. I noticed the appearance of Northern Ireland is wilder. Other than being a drunkard, he is said to dye his hair red. I added a scar on his face to make him look more devilish… Oh, bad thing…

**Dylan** (**Wales**) – The third brother. Other than bullying Arthur and likes drinking, not much is knew about him.

**Gilbert** (**Prussia**) and **Antonio** (**Spain**) – Arthur's friends. And who knows what will happen to them later…

Oh, cliffhanger! I won't tell you yet, cos' it will be a suspense. Until then, feel free to review and until next time! Thank you for reviewing and liking this story! J


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 2: Brotherly Conflict

Ever since he became part of the royal family, Arthur was always being mocked by his brother.

At first, they would call him names because of his short and small stature. As time goes on, they began to bully him and often used violence on him. Scott would try to burn him using his cigarette, Duncan would hit him with an empty alcohol bottle and Dylan would call him a 'shorty'. Sometimes the three brothers will throw stones and verbally injured him when they were drunk or in a bad mood.

Arthur would try to tolerate with them. As a result, he hid himself in his own room talking to his magical creatures and reading his books. Sometimes, he had Iris for company, which wasn't that bad.

It was not long ago the king announced to let Arthur to be the heir to the throne of England. The king had looked up to Arthur's skills and wisdom in ruling since Arthur began to involve in political activities. That only worsens his relationship with his half-brothers. They were jealous that Arthur had all the attention from the king, while they are supposed to be the true one in line for the throne. With that, their relationship continued to drift further apart.

_"Cheer up, Arthur. I understand how you feel towards them and how they feel towards you but it's not good to retaliate with them, it will only cause more troubles."_ His friend, Flying Mint Bunny once comforted him.

"You're right. They have the reason to be angry with me but I don't. I guess it can't be helped then…" Arthur murmured to himself as he was reading several boring pieces of documents and letters.

It was just like the usual day. Arthur would sit in his room reading letters and documents from the politicians and his people. While everything may seem nice from the outside, things were not getting better these days. There has been corruption happening in the country.

Yes, a very bad corruption in the country. Taxes of the country were sky high. The people had complaint for the unreasonable tax paid. Some were unable to afford such high taxes and they ended up unable to feed themselves.

It had been a headache lately. The king wishes to end this crisis as soon as possible but little could be found about the corruption. Nobody knows who is behind this. The people were too scared to tell, afraid of the culprit's action towards them.

xXx

Once again, the king has called a meeting among the politicians. The king, along with his four princes sat on the meeting table along with the royal councils discussing about the corruption crisis again and again. The king had demanded to get this thing settled over and over again but things don't seem to reach its conclusion yet.

"There has been uproar among the people, complaining about the rising taxes. Did anyone of you find anything related to these recent cases?" The king questioned the council.

"No, sir." One of them replied curtly, the others just remained silent.

"Father, if our country taxes are rising, then why didn't we notice the rise in amount of money in our account?" Arthur soon brought up the problem. He informed that the council account book doesn't show any changes throughout the time, which questioned where the excess payment could go.

"That has a point." Scott supported his idea, much to his surprise. "The person could have hid that money somewhere so that people will not suspect him."

"But then…" Arthur suddenly cut his conversation. "The only person who had the authority to collect taxes is the council and he is also the person who can determine the tax rate." There were murmurs of agreement among the council on the young prince's statement. "There could be a possibility that one of the council is involved in bribery and tries to gain advantage of the people's money for his own need."

There was a tense silent in the meeting room. No one dare to utter a word, afraid that they could be 'that person'. Even Scott, Duncan and Dylan sat like a tree stump on their seats, glancing and whispering to each other about certain things but they never speak out.

"Well, that can only be the first suspicion but do you know how to reduce this case from happening and how to solve the problem?" After a moment of silence, one of the council raised a question.

"It's just simple. We will have to help fulfilled their needs." Was Arthur's reply. "It's our job to make sure our people have enough of what they need so they can run the country for us. We have more food and more supplies than they do, so why not give out some to them? At the same time, we should try to cut away taxes to see how the situation progress."

The room was once again pregnant with silence, only murmurs and whispers can be heard among some of the council. This time, it was the king who broke the silent. "Very well, Arthur. Since we don't know much about the culprits' motive or who is the person behind this scene, we have to try our best to prevent this thing from happening. I also believe that people are now in desperate need for help so we will supply as much needs to the people from time to time to make sure they get what they are suppose to have." He concluded.

No one protested to king's decision, neither a sound was raised, so the meeting just ended in a silent with everyone back to their own job. Arthur left the scene immediately and rushed back to his room.

xXx

Upon returning to his room, he slammed and locked his door without even looking back. Once done, he took a deep breath as an attempt to calm himself down, relieved that he was able to get some fresh air.

What was that feeling in the meeting room just now? Arthur couldn't help but wonder about it. It was the same feeling he had that night during dinner time.

"What's wrong, Arthur? You look pale and frightened." One of his fairy friends noticed his discomfort came up to ask him.

"I'm alright. It's just…" He paused, don't know how to express it. "I just had a weird feeling while in the meeting just now…"

"I understand how you feel, especially you're now in a rough position in the palace." The fairy explained. "Please be careful. We don't wish you to get into trouble." She advised him.

"You mean some terrible git is going to get me into trouble?" Colour drained from his face the moment he heard his companion's words.

"Though we are not very sure but from how it looks and how it feels, the possibility can be quite high. Even if we know what will happen, we are not allowed to tell you as we cannot involve directly on human's matter."

"You're right…" Arthur sighed. While the country is already landed with grave crisis, his life was also in the risk of danger as well. "Can you guys do me a favour?" He asked.

Arthur laid out his plans to his magical creatures. He asked for their help to watch out for those criminals who was involved in bribery and reported to him if they found any. Since the government had cut away taxes for two months, so no one should come to collect tax at this moment of time. They would make use of the time to search for the missing value and the culprit.

Arthur can't remember how long he had spent his time planning his strategies. By the time he was done, it was afternoon time and he had skipped his lunch. He looked out of his window and gazed into the meadow and the busy streets. He can't go out today, it was just so the same of his usual routine of wandering in the streets, guess he would ended up being stuck in his room entire day reading his books again.

xXx

There was a knock on the door which caused Arthur to stir from his slumber. He lifted his head up groggily and blinked his eyes to chase the sleepiness in him away, only to find himself lying on his heap of books. _God, I fell asleep again… _He thought. The sounds of knocking came to his ears and brought him back to reality. "Coming." He stood up wobbly before stifled a yawn while trying to make himself look attentive. He walked to the door and opened it, his brothers barged into his room without saying a word, knocking him down in the process.

"Oh, sorre littre brother, didn't see ya' there." Duncan said with a sly smile.

"What the bloody hell did you three want? It's not like I let you guys fucking enter my room?!" The young prince asked annoyingly, not pleased with their presence.

"We jus' wanna come and see ya. Is there a problem?" Scott asked.

"Whadya want?" Arthur asked, this is not going to be good.

"You did not come down for lunch just now, and we sorta… worried." Dylan pretended to be caring.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you are worried of, I'm fucking fine anyway and I don't need you to bloody care."

"Anyway, ya did well fer tha' meetin' jus' now." Scott taunted him. "But don't yer think thins' to go tha' smoothly." Duncan added on. "That's right. Don't think that father likes your plan means that people will like it that way, the council hadn't actually agree with your plans yet." Dylan smirked.

"So, what kind of hellish plan do you have?"

"We won't tell ya 'bout it, but we warn yer, don't cha' try ta' stop us!" Scott heightened his voice as an attempt to threaten him (he failed though). "You should know that a child of a concubine always walks in shadows."

"So, what do you want?" Arthur asked, standing on his ground.

"Yer better be more careful." Duncan smirked. "Some of the nobles had come to seek our help and you know that who had more support." Dylan words caused the youngest prince to gulp a little. "We don't wish to cause riots in the country, so do you. If you wish for nothing to happen, then stay away and be on your guards and keep your slutty mouth shut." Scott walked up and grabbed him by the chin to make him looked eye to eye with him and spoke in deep, low voice, "Or else the demon had its guillotine on you…"

Scott let go of his grasp on Arthur's chin. Arthur was pushed backward a bit, almost sending himself hitting the wall. He stared back at his brothers with wide-eyes. The three of them left his room, laughing and joking all the time while Arthur just watched their back.

"Are you alright, Arthur?" Flying Mint Bunny came up and gave him its condolences. "I know they are hard on you but please don't put that in your mind, it attracts a demon, you know?" Another fairy came up to comfort him.

"I'm fine…" Arthur quickly hid the tears that were on the verge of falling. He walked to his study table and slumped down as more tears came. "I… I just want to be alone…" With that, he buried his head in his arms and sobbed until he passed out of tiredness.

xXx

_~Flashback~_

"Father, is there something you want to talk?" That night, the king made a sudden visit at Arthur's room, which was much to his surprise.

"Arthur, there's something I had wished to talk about…" The king spoke to him, low and hoarse voice resounding in his room.

Arthur let him entered, the old king figure shimmered in the candle's dim lighting, illuminating his figure. Arthur somehow manage to catch his father's every single detailed figure in the incandescent light. Even though the king had only became part of his life for three years, Arthur had grown to respect him, though his feelings for the king cannot compare to how he felt towards his deceased mother. As his aged face had already suggested, his shoulders that were once tighten were slumped, his hair that was once black were fading to grey. He somehow noticed that his father was growing weaker, just how many days left for him before he pass on?

"Arthur, I know disturbance has been happening in the country." The king sat on his chair at the study table while Arthur sat on his bed. "We have been in a rough position lately." He said.

Arthur doesn't need an explanation to his father's words, he had understand these things since he became part of the royal family.

"I'm glad that you care for our people." The king continued, having a little pride in his tone. "I was indeed a model of a royalty to care for what our people need as we serve them."

"Mother taught me this…" Arthur muttered, too loud to be heard by the king.

"Your mother… How I missed her, she was such a beautiful woman with noble etiquette, but no one approve of our marriage." The king gazed out of the window, reminiscing those time when he was young and met Arthur's mother. "That's why I have hope in you. You may be the perfect choice to inherit the throne."

"But, father… I'm not suit to be your heir, no one will support a concubine child to be a ruler…" Arthur who once lived as a commoner, doesn't like with the idea of him being crowned as the future king, all he wants is a carefree lifestyle like those pastimes. "Besides, I think your other sons are older and more suitable enough to take the throne."

The king drew a breath of sigh, returning his gaze on his youngest son, just how much he actually look like his mother. "Arthur, I know how your brothers treats you and how they feel towards you, you have been through those hardship and endured them throughout the time but I cannot be by your side to protect you, even when you are young… I didn't get to see you and your mother until your mother had passed away…" A hint of guilt hit the king. All the while he just wanted to protect his precious family but his work made his drifted further from his family, he can't even understand his three other sons. "I just wish to spend the rest of my time with you, in hope of repaying my debt with your mother."

"Father, there's no need to be sad. I will be fine, I can take care of myself, you don't have to worry about me." Arthur made a forced smile as an attempt to comfort his father.

"Arthur, I know you are very kind towards the people but please bear in mind that your contribution is not enough to save the country. There are still many people who were suffering but help was unable to reach them." The king explained. "The people need us, just like how we need them. If you become the king, I'm sure you will save this kingdom and more people in need from the kingdom's corruption. You may be the only one who could do this."

His father's words registered in his mind, never had he thought that his father would care for him so deeply. However, doubts continued to linger in his mind, worrying if he will be a good king or not, wondering if people will like him or not, what will be his brothers' reaction when he was announced to be the next heir to the throne?

But then, he knew more than the king knows. Judging from how his brothers' had treated him just now and how the meeting with the council went, all these doubts soon fall into darkness of despair. There is no way that the nobles and the council would support him. He was just a peasant boy get to be a royal just because part of his blood was royal. He doesn't get along with any other nobles or the council but only with the commoners in the street, he was filthy. His brothers had the council support, how is he going to win against them? Till now, Arthur continued to pounder this in his heart. Is he the right choice?

_~End of Flashback~_

xXx

_Could it be? Is it true that one of us is a traitor?_ Arthur kept that thought in his mind over and over again, questioning himself for the hundredth time. It's not good to be suspicion over people but he just can't help it. Whenever he thinks about it, it only makes things to fall into place and become a more and more reasonable answer to his questions.

Arthur spent all his time to himself in the library the next day. He had finished reading the books in his study and came to search for more enquiry. There are things he must know, especially about his family and this kingdom.

"Holy hella', look who's here!" His tranquillity was once again being interrupted by the annoying voice he had not wanted to hear.

"It seems that you are very hardworking today, commoner prince. I mean, VERY HARDWORKING." Dylan snickered. "Didn't we had warn you to stay away from trouble?"

"There is no fucking trouble with me! The only trouble is all of your bloody asshole!" Arthur retorted.

"Well said!" Scott said. "It seems that in father's eyes, you're his one and only apple. But, please be reminded of our words yesterday, else you'll run away crying."

"Yeah… So what do you git had in mind now?" Arthur asked annoyingly, slamming the books he's holding in the process.

"Whoa, hold yer' fairies, we dae't mean to make yer angry." Duncan teased him. "How mean fer ya to smash England's history book, its bad fer our country."

"What else? We want to remind you of our warnings yesterday." Dylan said. "It's too bad that father had decided to announce you as the heir to the throne on your 18th birthday and we didn't stand a chance to take over, how selfish of you!"

"It was him that made the bloody decision! So you should ask him instead of me and I didn't mean to take all of your fucking things into my possession!"

"Such a proud little prince you are! Aren't you good in coming up plans? It would be better if you talk personally to the king so that you won't be crown." Dylan made fun of him. "And be careful, you're going to cause a rebellion in the country."

"But before that." Scott walked up to him, grabbed him by the neck and slammed him onto the bookshelves, hitting some books down in the process. "I have to teach you a terrible lesson of the price of taking away people's possession for yours own sake. There won't be a good ending to it, as the throne does not belong to yours but mine." Scott hissed, his dark green eyes gleaming at Arthur's emerald green.

Arthur gulped and tried to get his breath as he explored his half-brother devilish green with unknown depth of anger. He knew those eyes were too familiar to him. Ever since he lived in this place, those eyes has been his fear. It was the eye of jealousy, the strong emotional element among upper class people. Scott was obviously envious of Arthur having his father's attention, getting whatever he wants and what he couldn't forgive the most was the kingdom of England was to be given to Arthur instead of him. This caused the three brothers to go against him, it's not like he want to!

"This is your ultimatum, either you resign, give up your title of prince and heir to the throne and leave or you'll face the upcoming god painstaking consequences. You know which one is better, right?" Scott threatened as he moved closer to Arthur, his face merely less than once inch. If it wasn't because of his current state, Arthur would have puke in front of him, his breath reeked of smoke, like a person who had not brush his teeth for years.

"No matter, what it comes down to. I will not accept that bloody offer of yours, thank you." Arthur rejected. "You can try to go against me but I'll not bow!"

Duncan muttered curse under his breath, Dylan was glaring at him with wide eyes. Scott growled a bit and let go him, sending him hitting onto the bookshelves, knocking down more books in the process. "Say all you want! I'll make you regret of your decision!" Spatting those words as a reminder, Scott turned and left, followed by the other two.

"Arthur, are you okay?" The fairies that had been witnessing everything afar came up to help him. "Did anywhere hurt?"

"I'll be fine." Arthur said as he picked himself up.

"But it's not for long." Another fairy said worriedly. "What are we going to do?"

"Wing it! If they're gonna do it, I swear that I will make their lives ten times suffering than how they did to me!" He ignored the fairies warning, anger flowing in every veins in his limp as he went to vent his anger on the wall.

Once he had calmed down, he went to clean up the mess during the commotion just now. While arranging those books back to their shelves, he noticed a single piece of paper lying on the floor. It must have dropped out from a book. He picked up the paper and noticed the head title, his eyes widen and his heart skipped a beat, time seemed to stop at the moment.

At the bottom of the piece of paper, there was a person's signature. Upon closer inspection, he recognized that signature, somewhere. That signature, with flowing, elegant cursives, large and clearly visible, showed none other than the signature of the word 'Kirkland'…

TBC…

Xxx

Phew… Finally done, the second chapter. Hope you all enjoy it and feel free to review.

Note: This will be my last chapter update for the month as I will be quite busy for the upcoming month, so there won't be any chapters update during that time… :( Sorry, I will try to update as soon as possible whenever I had the time to.

Poor Arthur, he continued to be bullied by his brothers. I am so sadistic. But don't be sad, Arthur, one day you're gonna have your happy ending, I promise. XD We can also concluded about the talk between the king and Arthur, just a little father and son's talk, nothing much. We can see that how much the king has his expectations on Arthur. Keep going, Arthur!

Thanks for reviewing and following.

Mangoshake24: There's a lot of question you have posted and some of them had given me some inspiration for the upcoming storyplot. I won't tell you yet, but a little hint here, some of your questions may be related to the upcoming storyline.

Silverheartlugia2000: Yes, the North American twins will be a part in this story but not now. You can feel free to guess what their role would be if you want.

Hetalia do not belong to me, so do the fairytales.


	5. Chapter 5

I'm soooo sorry for not updating soon, have been really busy lately. Anyway, here's the new chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 3: All Kirklands have Thick Eyebrows and are VERY Arrogant!

Arthur was riding in the meadow of his birthplace to clear his mind. Another letter came just as soon as their announcement was made, urging them to take action as soon as possible before the situation got worse.

That was bugging him. Why isn't their plan working yet? They had cut away taxes but the people are still complaining about the appearance of those tax collectors demanding their payment. This can't be right? Who were those people? How dare they challenge the royal family!

Could it be… their plan is not working? Yes… Because cutting down tax doesn't mean this thing will be resolve… No… If they had cut away taxes, then surely the culprit is going to show itself, so… why hasn't they met him (or them)?

"Hey, look who's here?" The moment he arrived the market square, everyone came up to greet him. "He's back! It's Prince Arthur!" The people, overjoyed to see their prince back in the streets to care for his people.

Despite his reluctant, Arthur attempted to hide his troubles and forced himself to smile at his people while they started chit-chatting. He would try to avoid about the tax topic so as not to worry his people, everyone has their own troubles to worry about and so do he himself. But then, he would hear people whispering to each other about him and he could feel the people glances on him from time to time, giving him a warning.

"It must've been tough on you." When everyone left the marketplace, he finally relaxed a bit and went to find Antonio in one of his tomatoes stalls.

"How do you know?" Arthur asked, amazed at his friends statement.

"Oh you know that I'm your friend, and I know many things about you." Antonio grinned.

"What about you? I doubt if you commoners actually know some bloody truth about this case." Arthur asked, putting both his hand in front of his chest and a pouting look.

"Whoa, whoa, don't use such colourful language in places like this _mi Gloria_." Antonio winked. "Gilbo is just somewhere not far away from here, why don't we go and find him to talk about this?"

"Fine by me, seeing you have things to talk." Arthur just shrugged his shoulders. He left the market place with Antonio after Antonio had given orders to his workers to look after the stall for him.

"Kesese~~ What awesome thingy brings you here, Toni?" As expected, Gilbert was just working at the meadow not far from the market place.

"Oh, look who I bring along?"

"Why, isn't it the awesome commoner prince of England?" _Commoner prince? _"Anyway, what brings ya here today?"

"Do you know anything about those tax collectors?" Arthur inquiried.

"Of course the awesome us knew a lot of things than you do. Kesese~" Gilbert smirked. "Congratulation for coming to the right place."

"As you can see, Arturo. The tax collector actually isn't royal council member like you do." Antonio explained.

"All I know is that the council members give order to representatives to collect tax and the representatives collect from the people."

"Indeed. So we doubt if a council member is truly involved in this." Gilbert said, sitting down under a tree. "But all we know is that the tax collector is not what we can really call an authority or a representative we could trust."

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Arthur, there are things the royal don't understand. Those tax collectors were a group of loansharks." Antonio told him.

"Loansharks?!" Arthur gasped at the word being mentioned. "How could it be?"

"Those unawesome people claimed themselves to be the representative assistant and demanded us to pay them." Gilbert explained to him.

"If we won't pay them, they will threaten to take all our property away. They even use brute force to go against us." Antonio explained. "Last time I don't want to pay them, they destroy all my tomatoes and injured my workers as well."

"Oh Toni, I'm far worse than you!" Gilbert whined. "Because I cannot earn enough money and cannot pay them, those shits beat my _mutti_ and want to burn my house!"

"It's that terrible?!" Arthur exclaimed, no one had told him that. "Why didn't you tell us?!"

"Arthur, it's not like we can just tell the royals directly by just writing a simple letter. If those people found out it were our doing, then more trouble is assured to land on us." Antonio explained.

"But the one to suffer is all of you!"

"Princey pants, thing is not as easy as you thought." Gilbert explained. "You have mentioned that royalty may be involved in corruption. I doubt those thugs even fear the royals. It's much like the royal are behind this supporting them, how are you going to confront them?"

Arthur gulped a bit. He has never thought such things could happen. _So, the council may be a suspect in this case_, but there's no way he could point this out. The council may not believe in him as they support his brothers instead and he doesn't have a concrete prove to the statement too. The worst thing is to come if they would try to overturn him and ended up having the innocent him being in jail.

"What other choice do I have?"

Antonio and Gilbert looked at each other for a while, wondering if they should say it out or not. "Well…" Gilbert spoke up, breaking the silence. "I know you are concerned with us but you can't be reckless, people will be after you." He said. "We suggested that you tried to keep quiet and keep the matter to yourself. When the right time had come, you can spill it out."

"But you all will continue to suffer."Arthur bit his lip, hearing his friends' words.

"Don't worry, England has strong people. That's why we are here to protect you." Antonio chucked in.

"It sounds more like I'm your princess peach." Arthur made a face at that statement. "Am I really that vulnerable?"

"We are doing this for your own good." Gilbert pointed out. "We can't stand our beloved prince to just die in the hands of some unruly tuff."

"Fine." Arthur gave in, but vowed inside to resolve this case.

"Let's go back. I still have to take care my tomato stall." Antonio persuaded and Arthur just complied. Gilbert snorted, not happy to be back to work. "I'll see you later, Gilbo."

The both of them ran back to the market place. But once the market came into view, they heard lots of bustling voice all over the place. Though a market is suppose to be filled with unsettling commotion, but something feels a little out of place…

"It's the chief." Antonio said. Arthur perked up a little, remembering the purpose he's visiting the town is because he wants to meet up with the representative of the town.

* * *

"G'day, madame, how's yer day today?" As expected, the representative is already at the market square talking with the people. He has dark brown hair, tall and muscular body, his appearance could charmed a maiden's heart and his smile is such a warm welcome, which people completely fall onto his looks.

His name was Ralph Kirkland, a distance relative to the royal family. His family is known to be wealthy for conquering the vast seas of Europe. His family name, of course was well known to be a blood descendant of the Kirkland. The royal family had even honoured his family as '_The Invincible Lord of The Seas_'.

Arthur makes a beeline among the crowds to meet with this person face-to-face. However, with his body built, Ralph was too busy to notice the petite little prince walking among the crowds and knocked him down.

Arthur fell with a 'thud' on the ground. Ralph turned his attention to the person who blocked his way and noticed the green-eye blonde hair prince being hit to the ground. He glanced Arthur from head to toe, noting the way he dressed in such clothing and the long, green cloak he wore identified himself as a man from the upperclass. As green is the symbolic colour of England, it's only wear by noblemen and royalties.

"Sorry." Arthur apologized while picking himself up. "Are you the representative chosen by the council to be in charge of this town?"

Ralph shot him a look and his thick brows formed a scowl. "Who the bloody hell are you to question me like that? For you to block my fucking way, you still dare to look at me like that?"

"Whoa, slow down, sir. He is an upperclassman as well." Now Arthur noticed another smaller man standing next to him. He looks more cheerful and younger than Ralph. He still has the signature Kirkland's eyebrows, which means he must also be a Kirkland. His brown hair were rather short and neat, and the sides his hair was curled up, looking like a… sheep?

"Oh shut up, Grover!" So that servant name is called Grover. "Don't you try to tell me that I don't recognize his eyebrows."

"He is one of the prince of England, sir." Grover told him. "His name is Arthur Kirkland."

The prince's brows furrowed at the statement, it's not like he wants that Grover guy to introduce him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever it is." Ralph just nodded absent-mindly. "So what brings you here today, commoner prince?"

_Not that again…_ "If you won't mind, can we talk?" Trying to ignore the man's word, he asked as polite as possible.

"You better consider yourself lucky to be part of my family, usually I don't take guest but anyway." He then turned to Grover and ordered, "Get my horse, we should be heading home."

* * *

The ride to Ralph's home was silent, only the hooves of the horse having friction with the ground could be heard. Ralph lives in the outskirt of the country. His mansion has a large pasture and space. The gardens were filled with beautiful flowers that blossoms throughout the season.

"How do you like my home?" Ralph asked once they entered the mansion.

"It's beautiful." Arthur commented, not daring to show any offense. "It has such a quaint feel…" He said while looking around dazedly.

"This land belongs to my father." He said while ordering the servants to serve Arthur some of his drinks. "So, whadya wanna talk 'bout?"

"Do you know recently about the loansharks who roamed in the village?"

"Aye, what's wrong with that?" Ralph asked, not showing any concern.

"Don't you know that those people claimed themselves to be related to the royal council and demand tax from the people!"

"Of course I know what was happening and it worries me as well." Ralph said calmly while sipping his drink. "So what's yer problem with these people?"

"I can't believe you take no action to those bloody thugs!" Arthur exclaimed, almost jumping up from his chair. "Don't you know that those people are a threat to our country? They could bring down the whole country!"

"Do yer think I'm this fucking irresponsible?!" Ralph retorted back. "I had tried to stop them and even give them warning but those bloody gits won't listen!"

"Then why didn't you report to the council?! You know how much headache have we gone through just because of those shit and you didn't even tell us anything!"

"True but who will believe in us?!" Ralph asked back. "Even if we asked the people to bring out the proof, they would be too scared to spill out the truth because those awful ones will take revenge on them! If not, they would fucking caused riots in the country to go against our kingdom!"

Arthur was silent once again, his emerald orbs bored into the brown colour of Ralph. Again, he could not denied Ralph's word. There is no way they could convince the council to take action as someone maybe involved in this or maybe no one support him either.

"Do you still have anything to say?" Ralph asked, his tone getting annoyed.

"Not much." Arthur muttered before continued, "Thanks for providing informations, I just hope you can work together with the council." He turned to leave but found out the book he bring along was not by his side, only to find Grover sitting at the sidetable flipping through it.

"I cannot believe it!" Grover said with amusement. "It seems like our commoner prince is still interested in fairies and magic stuff."

"What's fucking wrong about that?!"

"Oh Artie, you can never rule the kingdom if you too rely on these fairies stuff." Ralph chirped in.

"Don't you ever called me like that!"

"I know that England is country blessed with fairies but you can't possibly boast about the country's rich resources because of fairies, people will laugh at you for being an excellent story teller."

"Whatever you said. I don't bloody care, I don't see why I fucking should listen to you." Arthur snatched the book back from Grover and ran out of the house.

"Said all you can, commoner prince." Ralph snorted. "I was poundering why an arrogant prince like you can be the heir to the throne and liked by your people. Your bloody swearing words is all over the place!" He said mimicking Arthur's voice.

"The same for you! You don't even apologize when you knocked me down. It seems like the Kirkland family has lots of interesting fucking traits, huh?!"

The two continue to bicker until Arthur finally get onto his horse and rode all the way back to the castle.

"It seems like you're out for a long time today, Arthur." Once he retreated back to his room, Flying Mint Bunny came talking to him. "You don't look good. Is there something wrong?" Another fairy asked him with concern.

"Nothing, it's just about the corruption crisis…"

After having his dinner, he returned back to his room to continue his studies. He can't remember how long he stayed up, until he fell asleep halfway in the middle of his studies. His fairies friends pulled a blanket to keep his body warm while snuggling with it.

* * *

It was the next day when he woke up to sounds of whining noise. Waking up early or being force to get up is something he hates the most. He opened his eyes groggily, only to be blinded by the morning sunlight. He groaned and tried to shield away some of the light with his arm.

He heard another whining again, louder this time. He blinked the sleep away and tried to adjust his eyes to the surrounding, only to see his unicorn appearing at the window.

"Sterling, what brings you here so early in the morning?" He said while stifled a yawn. He was so damn tired.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Arthur but we have managed to locate the hideout of the persons who were involved in the case." The fairies reported. "We eavesdropped their conversation, saying they will be coming by today in the morning, so we came to report to you."

"If that's the case…" Arthur suddenly perked up at the news. He didn't even bother on wearing a proper attire. "Take me to there!" He leaped onto Sterling and dashed off.

TBC…

xXx

Phew, finally done! Hi, I'm back and thanks for being patient. I really love all of you! Tests are finally over and I got a free load of time to write. XD

So here, we get to meet more characters:

Ralph (**Australia**): It was mentioned that Australia is somewhat arrogant and kinda boastful sometimes. And his koala bear is scary… Sorry, but every story has a protagonist and an antagonist, right?

Grover (**New Zealand**): Ralph sidekick. It was mentioned that New Zealand and Australia shared a (kinda) friendly and rivally relationship but he is friendlier, so that's what his role is. His name was given based on the character, Grover in Percy Jackson, since sheep and goats were of the same family, though it doesn't sound good. -~-

I can't help but keep laughing at the title. True, Arthur and his siblings swear and is very sarcastic and they have thick, bushy eyebrows, so that's where the title come from. I had rewrite numerous time to make sure the storyline is perfect enough. But I still don't really like how this chapter is written… Anyway, it was just a prologue to the story, more to go.

Oh, so the culprit is discovered! Who is it?! Find out next! I will post the next chapter as soon as possible. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Translation:

_Mi Gloria_: My highness in Spanish


	6. Chapter 6

**Warning**: _There's a mention of rape, violence and strong cursing language in this chapter. Read at your own risk._

Chapter 4: Sparks of Betrayal

In no time, Sterling's teletransportation ability brings Arthur to an unfamiliar place. The surrounding was dark, covered by tall trees that blocked the morning sunlight.

"Where are we?" he asked, registering his surrounding in his mind.

"Don't be scared, Arthur." His fairy friend, Britanie, assured him. "This is just somewhere outskirt of your homeland. You can find this place if you take the long way in the forest."

That maybe possible, Arthur thought. As the long way from the castle to the town is a forest, no one would dare to cross it, so the probability of those thugs hiding in a place like this is highly possible!

"We have to be careful." Sterling communicated to him via telepathy. "Those people are the 'Black Metal' and they are now inside the abandoned warehouse. Keep yourself down."

In the dim lighting, they noticed some people chatting idly outside while drinking numerous bottle of liquor. They are all big in size and their smirks are rather intimidating.

"Looks like we got a big fish again!" One of them smirked. "These sums are going to last us years."

"All credits goes to our great boss." Another one cheered. "His amazing idea of taking the little slave from his mother as hostage sure give us luck!"

"What had they done other than robbing?" Arthur asked, keeping his voice as low as possible while listening to their conversation.

"I don't really like to speak of this, but it is the truth." Britanie told him, a little reluctance in her tone.

* * *

_~Flashback~ Britanie's POV_

Sterling and I disguised among the humans yesterday in the market street. That time, Arthur had left the market place with Ralph. We saw a boy begging for food from one of the stall keeper but was being shooed away by the stall keeper. The Black Metal appeared in the streets and demanded the stall keeper to pay him tax. The stall keeper was frightened by their presence and imidiately gave them all the money he had and let the boy go. The boy was then being tricked by them to give him food.

Sometime later, they showed up at the boy's mother worn out attic (we became invisible and follow them, of course) with the unconscious boy on tow, deep red scars can be seen marking all over his fragile body. They demanded a ransom from her and threatened to kill her son if she doesn't pay her the exact value.

The widow, horrified, begged them to spare her son while she gave up everything, all her possession to them in hope to save her son. But then, those things did not manage to meet the thugs' demand.

Of course, those people weren't going to show any mercy when being around the weak. They took turns raping her in her attic. Once they were done, they took every single thing the widow had and left.

_~End of Flashback~_

* * *

"How dare they'd fucking do such things?!" Arthur hissed under his breath, be reminded of their situation. "I'm not going to let those bloody shits go in their way again!"

"You can try." Sterling said. "But they outnumber you and with your current state, definitely you won't stand any single chance to win against them."

"What else can I do?" Arthur cursed himself of being useless all the time.

"Didn't you mention it before? Brute force is not a way to solve a problem, you need knowledge to gain access for your advantage." Britanie said. "You still got us. We can help you."

"Thanks. Both of you are just what I need." Arthur expressed his gratitude towards his friends as his mind quickly made up a plan.

Once Sterling and Britanie are well hidden in their hiding spot, Arthur braved himself and walked up to those thugs who were now red-faced with the colour of the alcohol spreading all over their face. He cleared his throat a bit before facing them eye-to-eye, gaining their attention.

"Oh… Look who's here…" One of the men noticed him and spoke to the rest of his gangs.

"It looks like another boy left wandering on his own and get lost in the forest." Another one chirped in.

"Little boy, are you lost?" One of them pretend to be friendly to him. "This is no place for a little kid like you."

Arthur got to keep that in mind for calling him that. They are gonna pay!

"Boss, we got visitor!" One of the men called their boss. A muscular gorilla… I mean, man, walked out of the warehouse. His size and height standout more than the rest of the men, indicating he is the leader of the Black Metal.

"What do you want, kid? Get lost!" That man showed no sympathy towards the young prince. "This is our territory! You have no rights to trespass!"

"I'm not a kid! I'm a prince!" Arthur retorted back, trying to protect his pride.

The men except their leader back off a bit, whispering to each other while throwing glances at him.

"Is he a prince? He looks more like a scum!" A person joked.

"He's just a prince. What's to worry about?" Said another one who was too confident.

"He's the commoner princey-pants that people had been talking about. The heir to the throne." A gossipper.

"So what does an imperal prince like you doing here?!" The leader was unwavered, he continue to yell at him, "You should be protected within the castle wall, not running alone in here!"

"As the prince I ask, what are all of you fucking doing here while you're supposed to be in town?" The prince challenged them. "What are you gits hiding in that warehouse?"

"How dare he… He's a jerk!" One of the members got enraged by the prince's choice of words. He raised his hand as an attempt to hit his head but was stopped.

"You are the damn jerk! Why don't you surrender yourself to the council and return all the money back to the people?!"

"Mind your stupid mouth, you bastard scum! Or we will teach you a lesson!"

"It was you who should be taught!" Arthur fought back.

"We won't let you!" Their leader roared. "I'll make sure you regret and take your words back!" With that, he ordered his men, "Clear him like trash!"

In split second, the thugs charged themselves towards the prince. Arthur moved his frail body side by side to avoid their attack. He barely had his head being chopped off by a man who wielded an axe as his weapon.

The moment when the people threw themselves into the chaos of battle. Britanie controlled the tree vines and binded them one by one at the limp of every man. By the time when the people find themselves having difficulties in moving, they were being tightly constricted by the vine tying them together.

"Sterling, now!" Arthur commanded. The unicorn came running at full speed. Using its teleporting ability, everyone was being transported away from the scene.

Arthur found himself landing on the grounds not far away from the castle. He was relieved that things will be settled but soon that feeling turned into panic with a mixture of fear when he discovered that the vines Britanie used to bind those thugs were way too soft to hold them. Soon, the green little ropes were being cut into nothing with the weapons they brought along.

"Just how did 'cha do that?" One of the man walked up to him, his blade reflected Arthur's fear. "Don't you think your little trick will work on us." He grinned maliciously as he rosed his blade to cut the prince's flesh.

The rest happened blearily. Arthur probably was too confused to take note of his surrounding as the rest of the Black Metal members threw themselves on him like an army of hungry cyclops pouncing on their food. They punched him, sliced him and even, tortured him, but he remained numb on the ground, like deaf to the world.

It wasn't until when he heard someone yelling and all the brutal work stopped. "It's Prince Arthur! Guards, take them away!" Once those people were taken away, he finally regained his senses and was being picked up by one of the soldiers.

"Your highness, are you all right? How can you go out alone like that? What if something bad happen to you?" Arthur suddenly remembered that he was still clad in his night robe, which he didn't slept in bed last night. His appearance in the public like that is surely going to make him the laughing stock of the town.

"Your highness, are you alright? Do you feel any pain?" The guard rambled on, like a mother worry for her child. "You better get inside and change yourself." With that, he brought the prince back to his room.

* * *

"Arthur, how can you be so reckless?" Some time after that, the king overheard the incident came to check on his son's condition. "You know how worry I am if you get yourself in trouble."

"I'm sorry, father. I should tell you in the first place." Arthur didn't give any negative response, just accomply to his father's words. He was just too lazy to argue. Those thugs had left a bruise on his cheek that it hurts whenever he has to speak.

"I'm just glad that you're alright." His father said, relieved. "Now that the culprits were caught, things had settled a bit."

Arthur couldn't help but let his heart go sky high, knowing his father was proud of him. But very soon, his heart sank again, haunting him like a death note.

As Arthur didn't speak much, the king left once he had delivered his words to tend his job. Arthur soon turned his direction on the book on his study table. That crinkled, yellowish paper sandwiched in the middle of the book with the end of it coming out from the book. The signature 'Kirkland' struck deep within him… Who's the true culprit and the real mastermind?

"Great job fer ya' to catch those idiots." The next day when news were spread out and the Black Metal were given death sentences. Arthur was once again annoyed by his brothers.

"But don't get too proud because father praised you. It's not like everything is totally resolved yet." Dylan warned him. "Didn't we warn you before to stay out of trouble if you don't want things to happen? If you insist your way, you'll stir things up and ruined yourself!"

"What bloody plans do you have in mind?" Arthur asked taking a sip of his tea while his bright green eyes glaring at them.

"Oh, we don't know." Duncan shugged. "As we said, we had the council members support and we are more experienced to than you."

"Then why didn't you guys resolve this?!"

"If ye tried to solve it using yer way, it will only cause more trouble." Scott said. "Even if we know who the person is, we don't know what plans he has in mind and can't accuse him for being wrong."

"Can't you guys try to find out and stop him?"

"The same thing goes for can't you stop yourself from trying to resolve this case!" Dylan spoke up. "Those thugs were being sent to prison already and there's no need to worry, things will return back to normal as time goes."

Arthur doesn't have the mood to argue with his brothers, his cheek was too painful for him to speak. He watched as they left hastily to finish their business, as if they're hiding something away from him.

* * *

Spring slowly faded into summer and the country continues to bloom with nature. The sea is strong and the green is rich.

As summer slowly rised, Arthur's 18th birthday has also arrived. The entire country was filled with live. People from the entire country, clad in tuxedo and evening gown, came all their way to the capital in order to pay tribute to their coming king.

The street was filled with people. Buildings coloured in bright, full blossom flowers and the finest decoration. All the people gather at the street outside the castle, cheering for the future king to be.

Meanwhile, Arthur has a hard time with his own attire. Seriously, why are all nobles so keen in attending parties or so called big event? His tunic was tight, just to fit his slim body built, too tight that he had some difficulty in breathing.

"Are you alright, brother?" Iris asked as she helped Arthur with his attire. "You seemed nervous." She said as she draped a green colour cape made of silk around his neck.

"Somehow… a little bit…" Arthur replied nervously.

"But this isn't the first time you're attending such a grand event." Iris said, her amethyst eyes filled with hue of excitement. Arthur couldn't help but think of how cute she was, her long, silky hair was being held up in a bun and she wears a blue corset that fits her body perfectly.

A guard soon interrupted their conversation. "Your highness, the ceremony is about to start. Are you ready?"

A little sigh escaped from his mouth before Arthur stood up and dust his clothes, the tight tunic almost suffocating him. He followed the guard as he went to meet his father who was standing at the balcony gazing in the streets.

From atop, he witnessed the people dancing across the street. Street lights, lanturns and flowers melded together, forming a shroud of life in the street.

"You're 18 now, Arthur." The old king said to him. "You are an adult now and in any time, you will have to succeed the throne."

Arthur never wanted to go against his father's wish, never had he raised a voice at him even though he knew this man was the one to take his freedom away and has high expectations on him. He understands how his father cares for him but this celebrity is a farewell to his freedom and childhood. An event that officially announced him to his adulthood.

"There are many people who will be attending your birthday today. You should meet them and get along with them. I hope you can find your future spouse among the crowd."

Now that's what that had been bothering him. He doesn't want to get married yet, especially at such young age. He found himself having a dislike on the upperclass people. Surely he loved his people, but not as much as how lover feels. He only wished to marry the person whom he truly loved and understands him to return his love.

He has no other choice, neither has he wanted to object his father's wish. He would tried his best to fulfil his father's words and then drowned him with excuses not to get married at the end of the day or whenever his father brings up the topic.

As the full moon dimly illuminated the street, people danced along with the shadow. Arthur had spend more than two hours dancing with noble ladies and sometimes, men as well, all asking his hand for marriage, which he rejected them all.

"So Arturo, have you found someone you love yet?" Antonio asked after Arthur retired from dancing and retreated to chatting with his friends.

"I don't wanna get fucking married yet." Arthur said as he emptied his glass.

"That's so not awesome, little prince. That sounds like you are not growing up yet." Gilbert joked.

"What about you guys? It's not like you have found any bloody pretty ladies to marry yet."

"Well said, we just want to enjoy this day by getting along with people." Antonio laughed and Gilbert smirked. Arthur got a little envious by their lifestyle. He wishes to be back like his childhood where he doesn't have to worry things.

"Good for you guys, I will catch up with you later." With that, he finished another glass of beverage and headed back into the castle. He ran pass people attending his birthday party who were chatting idly and dancing in the castle ground as well. He greeted some of the people while running, finding the shortest way to get into the castle. His father is going to lecture him again for not behaving properly but he could care less about this.

Once he entered the throne room, he saw his brothers drinking, talking and laughing together in a corner. The king was sitting on his seat, and next to him was Ralph. Why is he here?

"Ah Arthur, there you are. You keep me waiting." His father said when he noticed the young prince presence.

"Greetings, your highness." Ralph standing next to the king greeted him politely and Arthur returned as well, with a slight tint of pink dusted his cheeks.

"Arthur, this is Ralph Kirkland. His family is a distance relative to ours. I think he would be a great spouse to you, don't you think?" The king suggested.

Arthur flattered a bit at the statement. He, marrying to a person like that? He can't think about it, there's no way he's going to be happy with this person.

Ralph was clad in a blue coat, his brown hair was being neatly combed. A red cross, the symbol of England, was emblazoned on his shirt.

"Hello, Prince Arthur. My name is Ralph Kirkland. Pleased to meet you." Though he may be politle in his speech, Arthur could see a little lie in his tone.

"Happy birthday, your highness." He greeted Arthur while presenting a box with a ring inside. "Will you marry me?"

Arthur couldn't help as the red tinge spread across his face even more vivid. There is no way he could refuse Ralph in front of his father. "Yes…" With a shaky voice, he resigned to his fate. Ralph slowly slipped the ring onto his finger, planting a light kiss on his palm, much to the king's delight.

The rest of the night, he spent together with Ralph, his new fiancé. However, Arthur wasn't happy being around with the man. He could felt that he is hiding something from him. And he remembered the time when Ralph insulted him for believing in fairytales. If both of them already recognized each other, why would Ralph do that boring self-introduction to him instead of telling the king that they had met before?

"You know, I did not realise that you're actually that attractive." Ralph said to him when the two of them were sitting by the window looking at the party outside.

"What do you think that makes me attractive?" Arthur asked as he accepted a glass of drink from Ralph.

"I heard that you're once a commoner before living a life as a prince." Ralph said taking a sip of his drink. "Even now, you still care for your people and their needs. You even go as far as to investigate the corruption crisis and almost got yourself in danger. That attitude, it was something I admired a lot."

Arthur blushed even harder at his words. No, there's no way he's going to fall for this man, he does not love him at all! Why did his body feel so hot? Did he feel something burning in his mouth? He just hopes that the weird taste drink could cover up his face.

"What's wrong, Arthur? Your face looks red." Ralph asked concern in his voice.

"U-Uh… No… Nothing, it's nothing. Just… Just a little hot…" Arthur replied nervously, trying to hide his blush.

"If that's so… Do you want another drink to cool yourself?" Ralph asked offering another glass of water.

Arthur just accepted it without another word, drowning the contents into his stomach in a minute time. Too fast, he ended up getting himself choked and coughed a little.

"Slow down, why are you such a rush?" Ralph said patting his back, rubbing soothing circles on it. He then handed another glass of drink to calm the prince.

Arthur managed to stop his coughing and finished his drink in several slow and steady gulps, careful not to choke himself again. He can't help but feels weird to the drink. There is something spicy in it. Part of him thinks that it was disgusting but another one urged him to continue.

Soon, he found himself drinking non-stop with numerous glasses of the colourless liquid. He can't forget the taste, there's something strong that's attracting him.

"Hey, are you all right?" Scott asked as he helped Arthur to his throne seat.

"What the… Hic! Bloody hell yer talking… 'bout… Hic! I'm fuckin' fine… Hic! You wanker!" Arthur said while walking to his seat. His world was spinning, lights and figures can be seen before his eyes, and his body was swaying side to side, walking wobbly and almost falling several times.

It was almost the end of the day and he was to give a speech to thank the people for attending his birthday bash. Everyone who attended the party was gathering in the ballroom waiting anxiously for their prince to arrive.

However, the prince, in his drunken stupor was too drunk to make things clear. The moment when he sat on his seat facing a whole lot of crowds with high expectations in their eyes (which he was too drunken to notice).

"O-Oh, hello… everyone. Hic! It's a nice day today…" The prince said, drunkly. "I have some… Hic! Shitty things to tell ya… Hic!"

Some people had gotten shock at the prince's words. Never had they hear the prince talking with such language and by the looks of him, this is not going to be good.

"Mein gott, why has just happen to him?" Gilbert whispered to Antonio. "He suddenly looks so unawesome…"

"Mi dios, I got a feeling that something not right is about to happen…" Antonio grimaced.

"As yer know, many bloody things have been happening… Hic! And I fuckin' hate meself… Hic!" His words caused people to stare wide eyes at him. What has happened to their prince?

"I hate my brothers… Hic! They're doin' somethin' with the council… Hic! Those idiots… They are such worthless beings… Hic!" Gilbert and Antonio gasped at Arthur's words, worry that their friend will get into trouble.

"Damn, he must have drunk too much alcohol!" Gilbert exclaimed. "At this rate, he's going to…"

"And my fiancé is a shit… Hic! I hate his lies… Hic! And his servants… He's gonna made me life a hell…" And he continued in his drunken state. "The stupid Black Metal… The idiotic loansharks… Fuck them, the bloody Kirkland and council who were so much a jerk… To accept their bloody offer…" He tried to walk down the steps but he was too drunk. Without finishing his sentence, he slipped and fell onto the ground, being knocked out as the impact hit his head a bit too hard.

"Get him to his room!" The king order, worry and anger blended in his eyes, both for his precious son. Soon, Gilbert, Antonio and Ralph had come up to carry Arthur to his room. The party was dismissed in a simple apologizing from the king.

* * *

Arthur woke up the next morning in his bed. An unpleasant wave of nausea and headache hit him. He groaned and shifted his body a little. What happened yesterday? He didn't remember anything, the last thing he knew was he was spending the night talking with his fiancé to be and then…

"Oh Arthur, you're awake. Did you feel any better?" Flying Mint Bunny was the first one to come up and greet him.

Arthur sat up a little, groaned in pain as he felt another headache hit him. "Wh-What happened?"

"You got drunk yesterday and you mess up your speech." Flying Mint Bunny explained to him. "You fell while delivering your speech and faint so they bring you back to your room."

"I… What?! Shit!" Arthur got shocked from what Flying Mint Bunny told him and muttered strings of curse under his breath. "I don't remember consuming any alcoholic drinks."

"Seriously Arthur, you should be careful when people offer you to drink." Britanie scolded him like a mother.

"Wh-What happened?"

"Someone had added some alcohol in your drinks. And you are just legal to drink at this age, it's not a surprise that you got drunk with just a few of it."

Arthur slumped back onto his bed. What should he do? He must have done something bad in front of his people and disgraced his family. Now everyone knew the prince's true colour, there's no way they would respect him like before. What will his father think of him? Millions of thoughts flooded in his mind, mixed with guilt and anger.

"Arthur brother, are you alright?" The door opened to reveal his half-sister and his worried new fiancé standing by the door.

"I'm fine now, Iris. Sorry to make you worry." Arthur said while managing a weak smile.

"Arthur, you almost gave me a heart attack yesterday." Ralph said worrily. "Everyone was not pleased with your behaviour at the court, so do the nobles and the council." He said crossing his arms in front of him.

"Sorry Ralph, I just did not noticed someone spiced alcohol in my drink to make me drunk."

"But what do you mean by the Kirklands and the council accepting offer of the Black Metal?" Ralph asked.

Colours drained from his face, he never thought he'd spill things out when he was drunk. "I… I found out that… The person to involve in corruption… Maybe a Kirkland…"

"It can't be…" Ralph eyes widen at his statement. "You know that the king has got anger when he heard you said that and had sent orders to find things out."

Arthur's complexion got paler from what he heard from Ralph. In no time, they are going to find out…

Ralph and Iris left shortly after that. Arthur said that he wanted to have some time being alone. Things had changed to fast, so suddenly. Yesterday while he was merrily enjoying his birthday, and today he will have to face the consequences of being sentenced to jail, just because of alcohol! What should he do? Who will be there to support him?

His trains of thought were interrupted when a group of soldiers led by Scott barged into his room without knocking.

"What the fuck do you idiots want?" Arthur asked.

"Behave yerself, especially now that everyone knows about you." Scott glared at him. "Thanks to yer, father had commanded us to search your room if there was any relevant information 'bout the corruption."

"You can't do that! How can you believe a drunken man words?" Arthur tried to stand his ground.

"I'm just following the king's order." With that, Scott commanded the soldiers to search throughout his room, not to leave any stone unturn.

In no time, Arthur's room was completely being trashed and ransacked. They dumped all his beloved books on the floor, some was being teared into shreds. His embroideries were all being torn off with pieces of cloth and cotton disarded all over the place. Some of his poor furnitures ended up being smashed as well.

"Sire, it seems like we found this thing!" One of the guards reported. He showed Scott the piece of crumple paper. Arthur eyes widen in fear at that.

"How does everything goes?" The king decided to show up at this point. Scott handed the piece of paper to his father for inspection.

The old king widens his eyes as the looked into the paper. A confirmation letter regarding the illegal business between the 'Kirkland' and the Black Metal, the fact that the extra money was being passed among the person and those thugs. The king looked at the letter before shifting his eye to Arthur, looking at him in disbelief.

"Did you do this, Arthur?" The king asked shakily.

"No, father… I just…" Arthur struggled to come up with an explaination only to be cut by Scott.

"He's lying. Why he always sneaked out of the castle? It's actually because he was working with the Black Metal to rob the people. And latter he accused the Black Metal for being involved in corruption so that he could take advantage of the money they had robbed!" Scott yelled, totally overing Arthur's voice.

"It's not that! If I want to make use of the money, then why didn't I go to pick it!" Arthur tried to retort back.

"Why?! It's because you want to use the money and distributed them back to the people to show how you care for our people so that they will support you to be the next king, isn't it?" Scott fought back.

"It wasn't…"

"Arthur, how dare you!" Arthur flinched at his father's words, never had he raised his voice on Arthur.

"He betrayed us, father! He's trying to win the people by pretending to be caring for them!" Scott told his father with another lie.

"Father, he's wrong! I would never do such things!" Arthur tried to persuade his father.

The king looked at both of his son. He looked at Scott then at Arthur. A small frown appeared on his face. His impression for the once well educated boy had turned out to be an immoral and selfish person. His hope he had once for the boy and the expectations for him to be someone he wants shattered into pieces.

"Take him to the dungeons and locked him up." The king said, disappointed of his favourite son.

At that moment, Arthur's world collapsed and he felt himself falling into pitch black darkness. The guards soon grabbed his arm and pulled him by force. He struggled but to no avail.

"Father, don't fall onto him! Does that one proof actually name me a criminal?! Father, listen to me!" He shouted while trying to free himself from the guards' iron-like grasp. He could see his brother smirking at a corner.

His world soon crumbled into the endless fire in the darkness, slowly devouring his life from the inside…

TBC…

xXx

Bad Arthur brothers! Bad lots of people! Poor Arthur, now he faced his death. What will he do? And who's the real 'Kirkland' that was involved in the crisis? Who's the one that caused Arthur's downfall?

As you know that England could easily get drunk, moreover commoners don't drink as often as the upperclass. Seeing that he was also just legal to drink, he could get drunk easily.

My fighting scene description is really a failure. And I don't seem to be happy with the party part. True, I really hate to see Arthur getting engage to Ralph, cos the supposed pairing for Arthur is Francis. Anyway, I'm glad that I don't have to write much about those evil brothers in the future.

I won't keep you guys waiting. If possible, I will have the next chapter update by this week. Finally the plot is rising! There's more to cover soon!

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Feel free to criticize and give suggestions if you wish.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 5: Escape from Hell

Darkness. Complete total blackout. For those who don't understand, allow me to enlighten it for you. The word 'dark' means a situation of complete blackness where you can't even see yourself and your surroundings. First, you take it. Later, you wonder if you are going to the devil's place, or the deepest circle of hell, or maybe you think you are facing your own death.

Death… Yeah, it's the same situation as the poor little prince. His body ached of the days of torment. He wants to lie down and rest but with the chains holding his limbs, he was completely stuck to the wall, that only added salt to his wound.

Beneath this darkness, he could taste the smell of blood and rotten flesh. Dead bodies lied everywhere in this dark cavern. He wondered how many unfortunate souls had taken misery in the darkness, being tortured and forgotten to death. It's funny. While the kingdom looks so green and so beautifully blessed by the fairies in the outside, the upperclass people are yet the other way round.

How long has it been? He has loss count of it. The darkness devoured every single light in this place. His fairy friends could not come down to save him as demons lingered all over the place.

"You're such a filthy soul…" "What's wrong? Are you lonely?" "There's no use being sad in this place. C'mon, join us before your life ended."

Everytime he would be haunted by those devilish creature but he still manage to keep his soul intact for not selling it to them. He was not going to be deceived by them, even if he died, he belongs to heaven, not hell.

As he glanced into the darkness where no light could penetrate, he reminisced the past, his childhood, his mother, his friends, the people, his sister and the most of all, his father. Things would have been better if things were simple. If he was not the prince, he don't have to worry the jealousy among the noble people, he don't have to attend boring meetings, he don't have to worry his people need, he don't have to worry being betrayed by his evil siblings, he can go wherever he want without people knowing and isolated himself from the people… It was so much better than his life now.

A tear streaked down his face as he knew things could not go back the way it was. There is no way he would survived this, everyone has know their prince personality and they could have hate him. No one in the council supports him, his father has lost his trust on him, believing on every single sweet lie his brothers made. Will Gilbert and Antonio come to help him? That's impossible, there's no way the nobles would listen to simple peasant like them and they have no prove either, the same goes for Iris, just how much will she understand about adulthood?

He looked down at the little green rosary given to him by his mother when she passes away, the only thing she left for him. He smiled a little at the thought of his beloved mother. Maybe he can finally meet her again, the only person whom he cared and loved the most in his life. He missed her sweet, gentle voice, he missed the rose scent of his mother, he missed the wavy, blonde hair and her smile that would lit up his heart. Just how he missed her so much.

"Mother, are you happy in your place?" Arthur prayed deep in his mind, hoping it would reach his mother. "I wonder how you will react when you see me. I tried to be nice to my new family but I was being shunned away and now I'm facing my own death because of betrayal. Will you be there waiting for me?" He looked up into the ceiling of darkness, as if he saw her welcoming him in the sky. "If you hear me, can you lend me your power? Show them that I'm innocent and let me out of this place. If not, it's still alright because you can't help it, just please forgive me for being a bad son, I love you and I hope to see you there."

* * *

Arthur didn't remember how long since he'd fall asleep. By the time he woke up, he was shook abruptly by the sound of the creeking gate. His green eyes were blinded by the incandescent light illuminated by a little candle held by the person. He doesn't recognize the person walking to him, either a saviour has come to him or maybe his time is up.

"Hey you!" That person delivered a hard kick on him, he refrained from making any noise. "Get up, you slutty prat!" Another kick on his stomach and he hissed a little.

"Hey, yer sure put a g'show on yer birthday!" That slang, he heard it not long ago… "Thanks to yer, everything is now ours!"

Arthur raised his head and adjusted his eyes to the light. In the dim lighting, he saw the face of his fiancé, Ralph Kirkland! "R-Ralph… Why?!"

Ralph snickered. "Don't you know? I used you so that I can get closer to the king."

"You mean you proposed to me so that you can take the throne of England as well?!"

"I was jealous of you. Just because my ancestor is the child of a royal and a concubine, he cannot be part of the royal family. But you are different, even you are a commoner prince, everyone has their eyes on you, even the king looks upon you." Ralph said. "So the council and your brothers worked together with me so that I can get closer to the royal family."

"Don't tell me you're involved in the corruption as well!" Arthur exclaimed.

"Why, of course. I'm the true culprit behind this all the time." Ralph smirked devilishly.

"You…?" Arthur widened his eyes in surprise.

"The council and I actually control over the Black Metal to collect tax from the people. We used the money to share among us. But then, we have just one small little problem."

"Problem?!"

"Yes, and that's you. The half-commoner, half-prince and the heir to the throne of England, you're such a pain in the ass." He yelled at him. "For you to be so caring for your people, this is your price. We won't let you interfere with us anymore, so we have no idea but to get rid of you."

"Don't tell me during the party, it was you…"

"Indeed. I plan them all. I intend to make you drunk by asking your brother to add some strong alcohol into your drink. I also propose to you in order so that I could gain the king's trust."Ralph continued to speak before throwing Arthur a pitiful glance.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you said. Do you mean the king will still trust you even if I was executed?" Arthur asked a rhetorical question.

"Of course he will." Ralph looked at him eye-to-eye. "Once you were rid off, things will be a lot easier."

"E-Easier…" Arthur has a bad feeling for that. "Y-You don't mean…"

"Yes, for all those foolish brothers of yours who were so greedy to be aftering the throne, I will cut them down one by one until the only one left to inherit the throne is me myself!"

"That's terrible!" Arthur exclaimed.

"Oh, it's magnificent!" Ralph smiled slyly at him. "If you're willing, you could have helped me accomplish my goals faster." He said grabbing Arthur by his chin.

"What would that be?"

"As we had promise, marry me!" Ralph demanded, as if expecting Arthur to agree.

"I will never marry to a piece of shit like you! You are just going to use me so that you can be king and limit my control over the country!" Arthur spat back.

"What about our engagement we have spoken about? My ring is now on your finger."

"I don't have your ring. I throw it away after that night you gave me."

"Well said. You should be grateful that I'm the one who try to plead the king to let you out alive and you don't even appreciate it! Fine then, I'll see how stubborn you go!"

"I thank you but I don't need your pity, and I will not bloody marry you just to get out alive!" Arthur fought back which get a punch in return.

"Said all you want! Someday, I will take your everything to make you submit to me!" With that, he left the dungeons, leaving Arthur alone in the dark.

* * *

"Sire, it's time now. Do you want to go to the execution area?" Couples of days past, soon it were time for Arthur's execution.

The king looked outside the windows and heaved a heavy sigh. "I will go but I won't see Arthur being executed, I just want to see that boy and talk to him one last time." He knew he was regret and upset at the same time for judging his son that way but perhaps that maybe the only way to punish him. "Get him out from the dungeon and prepare for the execution!" He ordered, the guard obeyed without any objects.

Crowds filled the execution area, both commoners and nobles, whispering to each other about the price that was rumoured to have betray the country but no ones knows the truth behind this.

Just as everyone was waiting the moment for the prince to arrive, a guard suddenly came running up, with a panic expression on his face.

"Y-Your Majesty, the prince… The prince has escaped!" He informed the king.

The king along with the rest of the royal and council looked back with shocked expression. There is no way a person could escape the heavily guarded dungeon, how could Arthur just escape without anyone noticing?

"How can this be?! There's no way he could escape unnoticed!" Dylan was the first one to speak up.

"W-We don't know." The guard stammered. "Just as we reached the dungeons, he was no longer there. The cell door was still intact as if no one has broken it before."

As the news spread out, people wondered about the mysterious disappearance of the prince. The king has sent orders to search for the wanted criminal.

* * *

Meanwhile…

Iris cladded in her plain clothes and a ragged hood and cloak that covers her body from being notice. She rode on her unicorn while bringing Sterling along, Britanie's invisible magic helps prevented them from getting people's attention.

She overheard everything. Ever since Arthur was being put into prison, she vowed to find out the truth behind this and saved Arthur. By some chances, she eavesdropped the king's conversation with the council regarding Arthur's execution. Neither had she liked the news of Arthur being given death sentence nor the fact that her brother has to marry a certain distance relative of the Kirkland to live, she hated him for a certain reason, and even she could tell by smell.

The people of Arthur's village were not happy at the fact that their beloved prince was to be executed and they want to cause riots in the city to save Arthur. But then, Iris had assured them not to cause a rebellion in the country and told them she had another better plan to do so.

She circled around the castle several times to pinpoint Arthur's location. Once she decided it was safe, Britanie's magic helped them to walk across the wall to where Arthur was locked up.

"Arthur!" She whispered into his ears but received no response. "Arthur!" She tried again, this time a little louder but still Arthur hung onto the wall like death. "Iggy!" She then called him by his nickname which he hates so much, and that had actually managed to jolt him awake.

"I-Iris? What are you doing here?" Arthur was dumbfounded when he saw her in the dungeon.

"What else? I'm here to save you!" She said.

"You can't do that. Father will be angry at you!"

"I don't care. We will stop this before they could." She said with full determination in her eyes. "But first let's get out of here before they found out."

"Yeah, we should talk later. The devils here are annoying." Britanie said.

Before he could comprehend, Sterling used its horn to break the chains holding him and mounted him onto its back. The two of them went intangible and leave the prison without anyone noticing.

"How do you know about this?" Once they have gotten far enough and the castle was out of sight, only then Arthur dare to ask.

"I have heard about everything, since your birthday until now." Iris said as she takes of her hoody to reveal her face. "When I heard that you got engage to that Ralph guy, I got very angry cos' I knew he was a bad guy in the first place and I don't want to share you with him." She said while crossing her arms before her chest.

Arthur couldn't believe the person standing in front of him. He always thought Iris was just a child at heart but she was actually that mature. That somehow stunned him a little at what she spoke.

"And I won't just let you die like that!" She continued, making a pouting face. "Your people need you like how you need them. They have almost caused chaos in the country if it weren't for me to stop them."

"They… What?!" Arthur thought he was hearing things.

"Brother, even though you have done a disgrace to our family and done something bad to our people, they still chose to trust you because they know you are still the best choice to them. They have faith in you." She advised him, much to his surprise. He, being advised by a child?

"But what are you going to do? If father finds out, he will attack the people." He asked worrily.

"Don't worry, the people of your hometown are ready to help you. They will protect you. In the meantime, I will try to get more information from the castle." Iris answered him. "If possible, we will also try to get you out of the country so that you can be safe."

"How can I do that?! What about you and father and the people?! Won't the entire country crumbled of rebellions?"

"Our people are strong enough to endure for a while. While you escape to other country, try to get help from them if possible and stop everything. Everyone has their hope on you, you are the only one who can do this!"

Arthur was silent. His prayers has been listen. Though it may not be the best option, but it was the only choice he has, better than being killed under the guillotine. His mother must has helped him, God must have open the pathway of light to him.

"Head off to your hometown! Gilbert and Antonio and the people are there waiting for you! I have to return back to the castle." Iris said. "Please be careful! Everyone might be searching for you right now, so keep yourself low!" With that, she gave him another cloak to hide his face before turning back to the castle.

Arthur watched his sister's back, not even have the time to bid her a proper farewell. He was grateful for her bravery to save him from execution. By that means, he cannot disappoint her. He must live, for the sake of his people and country. With full speed, he dashed all his way to his hometown.

* * *

"It's Prince Arthur! He has arrived!" From a lookout point, people alerted the rest about the presence of the prince. Everyone, armed with simple weapons mounted on their horses went to escort the prince to safety. Gilbert and Antonio hid his presence well from being noticed by the government.

During this time, Arthur lived together with the villagers. Everything was just like his childhood. The people greeted him and would offer to protect him no matter what. It was just like a dream, a long, forgotten dream he had yearned for about his childhood. But then, things didn't last long…

A little pink flying bunny has brought a message from the castle all the way to him. It was a letter from Iris, a warning message.

_They have found out where you are. Set of to the habour at Southeast by tomorrow morning, board a ship to escape from England._

Perhaps you can say that the message came a little too late. Just before the crack of dawn, earlier before everyone have rise. The imperial army had came, armed with weapons and shiny armour. That time, Arthur was just preparing to leave the village with Gilbert and Antonio as his escort.

All of a sudden, there was a thunderous blast at a distance away. Out of nowhere, a big dark shape with a bright red and orange light at the end of it plummeting towards the village. One of the people's house was being bombed.

"What the fuck! Hurry Arthur, this way!" Gilbert said as he pointed towards one of the direction, escorting the prince to safety.

Soon, fires consumed the village. The entire village was in red, orange, smoke rocketed to the earth. There were shooting sound and the clanking of metals all over the place. The men trying to protect their home, women and children screaming and running for dear life.

Arthur couldn't bear to watch the scene unfold before him. Never had he thought that the place he once grow up and full of memories were now completely crushed under the merciless slaughter of the army. He never want this to happen, he doesn't want anyone to get hurt, it was just too much to bear.

"Arthur, look out!" Antonio shouted at him. He was too concentrated on his thought as he did not notice a man is aiming his rifle at him.

"Argh…!" A man suddenly jumped out of nowhere and managed to shield the prince in time from the bullet. He took the bullet instead of the prince and blood can be seen seeping on his clothes dripping onto the ground.

"Mister!" Arthur called out.

"Don't stop! Don't look back, my highness! Run for your safety!" The man shouted back. "My heart will always be with you!"

Before Arthur could make a move, Gilbert and Antonio dragged him away and out of the village. Arthur just watched as the flames of war devoured his country. He didn't even notice the tears tickling down his emerald eyes.

"What's wrong, Arthur?" Gilbert soon noticed his depress.

"Just a little…" The prince wiped some of his tears away.

"I understand…" Antonio consoled him. "Everyone has faith in you. You have a very important mission. For our country, our people and everyone living, they all believe in you to stop everything."

"Thanks guys." Arthur calmed down a little. "I realised how people expected on me. Let's get going, or else we will never made it." With that the three of them rushed to the harbour.

However, on their way to the harbour, they must past Ralph Kirkland's yard. A few of the soldiers patrolling outside spotted them and after them.

"Damn it, this is so not awesome!" Gilbert cursed.

"Don't worry, Gilbo. I have bring something along." Antonio said confidently.

A bull suddenly came out of nowhere and hit the soldiers flat onto the ground. They fleed from the scene as soon as the bull took the soldiers occupied.

"That's an awesome idea, Toni. You sure train your bull well enough!"

* * *

The three of them continue to run, avoiding the soldiers' eye all along the way. When the harbour has finally come to view, they gasped out of relieve, just in time to board the ship.

There are many people waiting at the harbour readying to leave England. Surely, the armies has caused riots throughout the country just because they are searching for a certain prince who had runaway.

But then, things weren't finish yet. As soon as they are ready to board the ship, the soldiers managed to chase up.

"Shit! They have chased up!" Gilbert muttered curses and quickly pushed Arthur onto the ship. Both he and Antonio gotten attacked by the army while trying to stop them from boarding the ship.

Too late, the ship has started to leave the harbour the moment Arthur boarded. "Gilbert! Antonio!" Arthur called at them.

"You go! We have faith in you, Arthur! We'll deal with them the moment you're not in England!" Antonio assured him.

The ship continued to sail until the harbour was out of sight. Arthur sorted his jumbled mind, rewind every single thing that has happen today, it's just too much to handle. And now, he's all alone, where will this ship take him to? What if he fails in his mission? What will happen to his country? Things are just too much, all because of him. He sunk onto the floor, burying his head on his knees and sobbed. He mentally blamed himself for being useless, everything happened just because of him, he should have accept death and get himself being executed instead of running away from reality.

The voyage was quiet throughout the journey. It wasn't until when an unexpected storm broke out in the middle of the sea. The rain poured, the lightning rolled and the thunder roared in the sky, stirring up rough, strong tidal currents in the seas.

The ship went up and down being pushed by the waves. It tries to plunge through the strong waves but to no avail. A huge wave soon lunged onto the ship, swallowing the entire ship into the ocean in split seconds. The massive force break the ship into half, tearing every single pieces into nothing but debris.

The people panicked and tried to rescue themselves but the current washed them away. Some had sunk into the depth of the sea and was not ever seen again. Arthur struggled to catch his breath but the waves pushed him beneath the water level, making breathing impossible. He finally gave up and stop struggling, submit his fate to god. He could felt energy draining away from him and slowly consciousness slipped away from him…

TBC…

xXx

How was the last chapter? And here it is, the new chapter! Remember to leave a review after reading it. I would gladly appreciate it.

I had tried to make this story as good as possible. Still, I'm still not satisfied with some parts but that's the best I got. So I hope you all will like it. But then… Finally, the most awaiting part has finally come! I will have this update as soon as possible if I could.

What did I do to Ireland?! But it's fine, right? People will get mature at certain times right? And I heard many people said that pirates don't know how to swim, so that's how England don't know how to swim too. Sorry Arthur, but I ain't so cruel to let you die yet.

So, what do you think will be happening in the next part? Where will Arthur go? Coming next!

Hetalia do not belongs to me, so do Beauty and The Beast and Princess and The Frog. I just own the story plot.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 6: A (Not So Happy) Meeting with A Frog

_Darkness, flame, hatred, blood… All came in one piece. They hated him, they hated him for taking away the throne that was once belong to him. Hatred soon turned into greed. Everyone was greedy to be close to the royal so that they could take the opportunity. That caused them to sink further into the depth of endless sins of darkness._

_The beast hid beneath the darkness, coated with wrath, jealousy, greed… Filthy ones, too blind to see the truth and differenciate the reality. However, it turns out that they have gotten too strong. Soon, the flame of darkness spread towards him._

_He ran as fast as his feet could carry him, like a little defenceless bird trying to escape from a predator's jaws, willing to cling onto anything to save himself. But the fire is too fast, there's no way he could escape._

_The people whom he loved as they loved him, stood up to shield against him. One by one, they fell, forming a red, crimson river on the ground. Yet, the fire continued to spread, evaporating every single drop of the red liquid and continued to chase after him._

_He ran and ran in the darkness of no ends. Fatique soon took over him, his legs gave him up. The fire caught him, swallowing him into the flame. In the unbearable heat, he could see the filthy souls lunging towards him, devouring him bit by bit. He struggled and screamed, but was unable to escape from their metal like grasp._

Arthur did not realised he'd been screaming until a cool, wet cloth was place on his forehead, calming him down instantly. He blinked his eyes a little, emerald green eyes explored the place he was now in.

Wait a minute. He quickly sat up on bed, looking his surroundings and his body. His clothes were soaked wet, tears and sweat streaked his face. What had happened? How come he'd get here?

"Lad, you're awake." A gentle voice resounded in his ear. It kind of reminded him of his deceased mother. Could he be dead?

"_Jeune homme, êtes-vous bien_?" Seeing he has no reaction, the person continued to ask, in an unfamiliar language.

Arthur snapped of from his thought and faced the person. She was an old lady. Wrinkles can be seen all over her face, a slumped back and she barely had any tooth left.

He tilted his head sideway, trying to understand what she said. The old lady sighs and speaks in English, "Are you alright, lad?"

"I…I'm fine…" Arthur replied before asking a question. "Where am I?"

"You're in one of the village in France." The old lady replied. France? Isn't this country the enemy of England? This is bad! "I found you unconsciously at the borders and bring you back to my home."

Ah, he remembered everything… The betrayal, the escape, the revolution and the shipwreck… God, he's still alive but his situation was not any better.

"Is that so? Thanks for helping me, ma'am. I got caught in a shipwreck… And I guess the waves must have bring me here."

"Oh, you poor little being. Where are you from?"

When she mentioned that question, he shuddered and stammered a bit. Guess he can't hide it, people will know anyway. "E-England…"

"_Je vois_. What happen?" The old lady did not get furious on him, maybe she accepted him.

"… A revolution breakout… The people and the aristocrat fight among each other… I tried to escape from the country… But then…"

"That's a sad one." The old lady sighed. "Our country was also in that situation years ago." She said while staring out of the window.

Arthur looked out from the window and can the entire village from here. Many of the houses are in damaged state and barely suitable for people to live in. The children on the street are skinny due to lack of food. The fields are barren.

"W-What actually happen?" Arthur braved himself to ask before hearing his stomach complaint.

"You are hungry, young man." The old lady said while she stood up. "I will fixed you some soup. It may not be good but it's all I got."

Not long later, she came back with a bowl of soup in one of her hands. She handed it to Arthur. He muttered a thanks and took a little sip of the plain soup.

"It was years ago, so long that I myself cannot remember." The old lady said as she reminisce the past. "There was a war in our country. The king was murdered in the battle and the entire royal family was wiped out."

"Even the heir of the throne?"

"_Je ne sais pas._ There was once a prince in this country, the heir to the throne, but then he vanished after the war. No one knows if he was murdered as well or escaped to another country." She told him.

"But if the prince is still alive, then the country won't be in such state. If would have probably recovered from the war." Arthur stated.

"Oui, you got a point there, young man." The lady let out a sigh. "Many people believed the prince is dead already but some still have hope that he is still alive."

"How could they say so?"

"From time to time, we would notice the castle manage to become 'lively' once in a while and it will be lit up with lights. We truly believe that the ruler will soon appear in France." She smiled a little when she mentioned about it.

"Ma'am, I know it may sound strange to ask. But do you know where the castle is?" The prince asked while playing with his fingers, having a little hope for himself. Something tells him he must find this castle and try to undercover it.

"_Oui_. If you cross the forest from this village, followed the direction of the river, it will eventually lead you to the castle." The lady said. "But be careful, they said there were creatures near the castle ground. It would be safer if you leave tomorrow morning."

"Oh… Thanks, can I stay for the night before I left tomorrow?"

"_Oui, ce n'est pas un problème, monsieur_. It's getting late now, you should change those clothes of yours and get some rest for tomorrow's journey."

The old lady handed him some old clothes. He doesn't feel comfortable in these ragged clothing but it's a lot better than those wet clothes he was wearing. He thanked the god that the weather isn't very cold yet. He fell asleep once he hit the soft pillow, falling into a dreamless slumber.

Arthur woke up to the single ray of light penetrating his room the next morning. He's not going to eat anything, he's not going to trouble the old lady, especially her house is already in a worn out state.

"Be careful on your way there and have a safe trip." She bid him farewell just before she left. She even prepared some stuff provided for him for his journey. They were not much, but just what he needs.

"Thank you for your hospitality, ma'am. I promised I will repay your kindness the next time we met."

"_Vous êtes les bienvenus, monsieur_. Just take care of yourself." With that, Arthur left the village and head off to the woods.

* * *

_Arthur, why do you think of visiting the castle?_ On the way, he would question himself with some conflict he was facing. He actually has not made up his mind. He is supposed to get help from other country but it seems like he ended up landing in a country that won't do him any good.

There is a probability that there will be no more surviving royal in this country from what the old lady told him but when she mentioned about the castle being 'lively', that somehow bring him hope to find out about the castle. But then, the rivalry and bitter relationship that existed between England and France for centuries had made his position hard too. What if certain people don't accept him for being a Britain and he may ended up being execute, that won't be good too…

_What the bloody fuck am I doing?!_ He exclaimed to himself. He has travelled for almost three hours, halfway to the castle, resting by the riverside. And yet, he still hasn't made up his decision yet. Part of him wanted to go back but there's no where he could go and part of him insisted to check the castle. There's something... Something important to him...

After sitting for a long time considering his options, he decided to stick to his plan. There's risk in it but at least there's a little hope in it too. With that he continued his pathway to the castle.

As he continued his way, the road seemed to have gotten more complicated and he would always hear certain strange voice among the forest. He turned to look around but sees nothing.

"_Monsieur_…" Later, he would hear a certain whisper. "_S-S'il vous plaît_…" At first he thought he was hearing things. "I need your help…" But then, those words told him he was not dreaming. It can't be a ghost, right? He looked around but spotted nothing. There are only trees and bushes and the sounds of flowing river, nothing else.

"_Monsieur_, over here!" This time, the voice is a bit louder and he was able to pinpoint the person's location. He soon noticed a little sparrow like creature flying in front of him, trying to get his attention. It has black feathers and a single curl on his head.

"Are you talking to me, little one?" Arthur asked while he gently held the bird in his palm.

"Yes, it seems like I need your help." The bird told him. Much to his surprise, he thought fairies only exist in England but here, even animals can talk, is that possible?

He then followed the little bird along the river. He soon came across a huge tree by the river bank. There were crocodiles gathering under the trees in the river, somehow trying to catch their prey. Is it the bird's nest was being attacked?

"Alfred, I told you it won't be a good idea!" He heard a voice.

"But if I don't do you it, they will eat you." Replied another voice.

"_Nononon_… I'm not going to let your claws ripped my beautiful skin."

"Bah! I thought you hate frog skin dude!"

"Yes, but if you leave a scar, I will have to carry it my entire life even if I turned back to human."

"There was a frog being trapped above the tree and the crocodiles are aftering it. P-Please mister, s-save him before he g-got eaten." The sparrow that led the way beg him.

Him, saving a frog? Why would a frog needed to be saved? They can escape by their own, can't they?

"Dude, there you are, Mattie. Where have you been? I need your help." Another bird came flying towards them. This bird was the same size as the black little bird except that part of the feathers on his head was yellow and there is a cowlick instead of a curl on his head.

"W-Well, I manage to find someone to h-help Francis." The black little bird said before turning back to Arthur. "My name is Matthew and this is my brother, Alfred. That frog over there on the tree is Francis."

"Don't call me a frog, it's a prince!" The frog, I mean, Francis shouted back.

"Dude, there's no need to find a person to do that! I'm the hero afterall, I will save that Francis before he got eaten by those crocodile!" That yellow-headed bird boasted himself.

"Hey, what are the two of you thinking you're doing?!" The frog… Francis, I meant, that was trapped above the tree called out. "_Mon Mathieu_, how can you just leave me alone like this?!"

"_Désolé, votre Altesse_." Matthew apologized immediately. "P-Please monsieur, can't you think of a way to save him?"

"What actually happen?" Arthur asked.

"I was just swimming by the river as a stroll outside. One of these monsters suddenly chased after me. I tried to escape but this creature opened its huge mouth that shot me out of the water and I ended up being hung on this damn tree!" Francis said. "If it wasn't because of these two little brats, I wouldn't have gotten in trouble!" The two little birds snickered a bit.

"Why should I bloody hell save a damn frog?! I have to get to the castle before night!"

"_Monsieur_, did you said you're going to the castle?"

"So what? It's not like you can bloody go there!"

"_Nononon_, I won't allow strangers like you to step into the place." The frog said back. "For your knowledge, I lived there and I will never allow you to enter."

Arthur couldn't believe at what he has said. _The frog lives in the castle?_ _How can that be?_ Because he lives in the castle so he wanted Matthew to call him a prince instead of a frog? Someone must be pulling pranks on him. "Stop that bloody fucking lie, you frog jerk. Don't you think you can convince me to save just because you live in that bloody castle!"

"For you to speak such dirty language in my beautiful place, you bâtard! I will teach you a lesson once we get back!"

"H-He's telling the truth, mister." The black little sparrow, Matthew tried to tell him but was ignored. Alfred literally cut in during their conversation. "Dude, you may not believe this but he IS the fucking owner of the castle and me and Mattie live there as well."

"So, do you believe now?" The frog said in a taunting voice. "And I'm not gonna let you stay in my castle. No, no and NO!" Francis insisted. "Now can you come and get me down?!"

"As if I will help you do that?!"

"C'mon, dude. Why won't you let him stay in your castle as a repay?" That bird that was called Alfred chirped into the frog's ears.

"_Al est juste_, papa. Perhaps he's the destinated person we have been waiting for." The other one agreed as well.

"What the, he's a foreigner I could tell!" Francis said with reluctance. "I can't possibly let him just enter like that."

"Do you want to be back as a human or do you want to be a frog forever?" Alfred questioned.

"You _marmots_…" The frog thinks for awhile before speaking to the English prince.

"_Monsieur_, I will let you live in the castle under a few conditions." Francis said. "First, get me outta here before those things eat me!" He said referring to the crocodiles gathering under the trees waiting for him to fall prey.

"And what else you got?" Arthur asked back annoyingly.

"Don't ever complain anything about living in the castle. The servants are weird but just tried to get them over." _What did he mean by it?_ "And I want you to eat together with me, indulge with me and do whatever you could to please me."

"What is that bloody hell last condition of that?!" The prince asked furiously.

"Do you want a place to live or not?" The frog asked.

"…Fine…" The English prince finally gave in, having a place to live is a lot better than anything.

He then climbed up the tree as an attempt to save the little frog. It's been quite a while since he had climb trees like he usually would in his childhood but that skill has gotten rusty. He almost slipped into the river and by just one step, he would have fallen into the crocodile's HUGE jaws. After struggling for a long time, he finally get onto the branches and lifted the frog from where it is.

"Be gentle, _mon ami_." Francis reminded.

"I understand…" The prince replied with a sigh. Why did he even bother saving this stupid frog? Maybe because it kind of reminds him of his fairy friends.

* * *

The castle was situated beneath the forest, covered with green leaves and trees, some of the plants were seen dangling and climbing all over the walls. It looks like an abandoned building. Cracks can be seen on the marble walls while the building tried to stand erect in the midst of the forest. Colours that once painted the walls faded into dull hue.

"This is my magnificent, beautiful and the most amazing piece of work in the world." Yet, the frog, Francis couldn't stop boasting at his magnificent place, as if he lived in the most beautiful place ever.

"I doesn't look good, though…" The prince said, somehow not happy with how it looks.

"Don't judge a book by its cover." The frog said. "The inside is a lot better than the outside."

Indeed, what Francis said is true. The interior of the castle was lit with various colour of light that shined the surrounding very well. Even though much of the furniture were worn out and has not been used for a long time, they still looked good with the lights illuminating them.

"I see you're back, your highness." A lion looking like creature soon stepped up to greet them. Its mane was golden yellow slicked back and there is a hone on the side of his head. "And it seem like you had bring a guest too."

"Y-Your Highness?!" Arthur was horrified at how the creature gestured towards the frog. How can a frog be someone so dignify? So what he said and those little birds said just now are true!

"Yeah, I don't feel like entertaining him for the moment. Would you lock him up in the dungeons?" The frog commanded.

"What? But that's not how you should treat a guest." The creature persuaded him to reconsider his action once more. "Did he done something wrong?"

"_Oui_. First, he used course language to talk to me. Next, he underestimated me when I asked him to save me. Later, he insult me saying that my castle is ugly! And most of all, those eyebrows and his smell was definitely the scent of England, the long term enemy of our kingdom. I'm not going to let him trespass our country and act like nothing has happen."

"You bloody cheater frog! Is this how you repay a person who helped you?!" The English prince got furious at the frog's words. "Besides, isn't it a promise that I was allowed to reside in your place?"

"I have already done it, didn't I?" Francis asked back with a sly smile. "You'll stay in the dungeons for the meantime."

"Your highness, you aren't supposed to do that!" The lion creature tried to advise the frog but the frog paid no attention to his words.

"I'm sorry… Since we still don't have a room for you to stay, I hope you will endure it for awhile." The creature said and tried to take him to the dungeons but the prince remained persistant.

"Force him if he doesn't want to, Ludwig." Francis demanded.

"It seems like I don't have a choice." The creature that was called as Ludwig let out a sigh before making an intimidating glare at Arthur. The moment the prince explored into his bright blue eyes, he caught sight of the lightning that caused him to stun. He felt himself being weak and ended up being dragged away to the darkness of the dungeons.

"Stupid frog! I should've left it there and let it get eaten by the crocodiles instead!" The prince muttered curses under his breath when his limbs were being held by the chains. He was once again back into the darkness of the prison.

"What should we do, Mattie? We can't just let him die like this." The two little birds who have been watching everything unfold from afar whispered among each other.

"Don't know… But we should try to spread some rumours and get some help from the rest of the people to help us with it."

TBC…

xXx

Arthur, you're alive! XD Francis! How dare you do that to our dear Arthur?! Let him out! What will Alfred and Matthew do to save him?

I got over excited when Francis has finally made debut in this chapter. And the North American twins! I love them so much! Finally, the story has finally come to the main part. :3 Are you all excited to find out what will be happening next? Feel free to leave a review and suggestions for me to make a better story line.

College is going to start again. I may once again got busy with homeworks and assignment that I won't have much time to update. :( So, please be patient. I will try to update whenever I have the time to do so. All your support motivated me to write more, thank you so much!

There are new characters in this chapter. More characters, which are the servants will make their debut in the later chapter.

Characters:

Francis (**France**): The other main character of the story! Yay! He finally appear but as a frog. Can he change back and live as a human being?

Alfred (**America**) & Matthew (**Canada**): I made them as a pair of Tengu in my story. Tengu, in Japanese folklore mentions it to be a kind of yokai that resembles half human and half bird, but they are full birds in the story and they are pretty small in size (I will tell you about this someday). Do you all wonder why part of Alfred's head was yellow?

Ludwig (**Germany**): He is a Hakutaku, also a type of Japanese mythical creature. It resembles a lion with horns on its head. Hakutaku usually acts as the king's secret adviser, that's where I put Ludwig's role as, since he is a serious person. He acts as Francis' adviser.

Translation:

_Jeune homme, êtes-vous bien~ _Young man, are you alright?

_Je vois_~ I see

_Je ne sais pas_~ I don't know

_Oui, ce n'est pas un problème, monsieur_~ Yes, it's not a problem, mister.

_Vous êtes les bienvenus, monsieur~ _You're welcome, sir.

_S'il vous plait_~ Please

_Désolé, votre Altesse_~ Sorry, your highness

_Al est juste_~ Al's right

_marmots_~ brats


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 7: Acceptance

Arthur was tired, hungry and out of breath. His leg ached from the days of escaping from England and walking in the forest. The chains only worsens his state by straining him to death, he couldn't even breathe properly. All he wants to do is to lie down and take a rest but he couldn't. Even if he closed his eyes, he will see images of the destruction of his country that haunted him.

For the least, this place was far a lot better than the dungeons in his place. Sunlight penetrated through the window bars lightened up the enclosed area. He can see the view outside. He vaguely make out a certain figure that resembles beautiful flower bushes out there. There's the faint smell of roses and sorts of flowers. He can hear the gentle gushing sounds of water from the outside, it was just so nostalgic…

His thought was interrupted when he heard the creaking of the cell door. He noticed a goat like creature with weird-looking and huge horns (or stag) on its head. The horns glimmered under the sunlight and he could tell that those viridian green eyes that were starring at him was not much of a friendly sign.

"His Highness had sent orders to release you and let you stay in a room." The goat… said… He then used his horns to break the chain that was holding the prince. The prince collapsed to the floor once he was released. He tried to push himself up from the ground but was too tired to do so.

Without further thought, the goat helped Arthur to stand with his feet and supported him. "This way." He said while guiding Arthur out of the cell.

"Why did he suddenly offer me to stay?" Arthur asked while walking to his room.

The goat once again glared at him with his intimidating eyes, that caused Arthur to flinch a little. "Thanks to everyone, they manage to convince that frog to let you stay."

"I don't need that frog's sympathy." Arthur said, though he was actually quite grateful.

"Then should I lock you back up in the dungeons?" The goat asked, his eyes gleamed an even more frightening aura. "You know, you're just like our prince, stubborn and can be quite a bit of an arrogance."

"I'm not!" Arthur protested. The goat just snorted and ignored him.

The goat led him out from the dungeons, passing through various staircase and walk lane. Arthur could notice that the further he went, the darker the pathway is and there is a cold breeze coming from inside. Many of the furnitures were covered in dust, but still in term of usage. Arthur shivered a bit at the cold air, he could feel his heart beat speed up, his breathing becoming uneven and his legs slowly giving up as he proceeded further.

"Why are you slowing down? Just keep walking!" The damn goat demanded. When he received no reply from the prince, he used his horns to strike the prince butt (Er… Back… Not so gentle but not so forceful so not to hurt him…).

"A-Ah! Ouch! W-What was that for?!" The prince snapped out from his trance and hold the skin that was hurt by contact. "How dare you bloody do that to a prince?!"

"Quit whining if you want to see tomorrow. For I, Vash Zwingli, knight of France shall kill you." The goat did not buy his words but threatened him further. "Can you just shut up and get into the room so that I could finish my job as soon as possible?!" He glared back. "Besides, there's no prince in here. You're a person from a foreign land with nothing that could prove you to be a prince, the same goes to that stupid frog who thinks so highly of himself."

Arthur was silent. This guy is just too annoying. It would be bad if you're to make him angry. He decided not to argue anymore and entered his room.

Unlike how the outside look, his room was rather warm and bright and was quite welcomed. The servants must have cleaned this room for him to stay.

"Oh, so he's the person the twins have been talking about lately." A girl smiled at him the moment he entered the room. She has brown hair but partially of it was somehow turning blue. Her eyes were green but also has shades of blue. She wears a green maid dress with a light blue apron. She also wears a white scarf and headscarf.

"Hello, what's your name?" A small girl with large viridian eyes same as the goat came up to greet him. Her hair was cropped short, just reaching above her shoulder.

"A-Arthur… Arthur Kirkland…" He was supposed to say 'Prince Arthur Kirkland from England' but he remembered what Vash said and just shrugged it off.

"I'm Elizabeta, a Yuki-Onna and the chief maid in this castle." The brown-blue haired girl introduced herself. "This Zashiki-Warashi here is Lili." She gestured the short little girl. "And that is her brother, Vash. He is a goldhorn."

"You better not touch my sister." The goat… Or whatever goldhorn creature said in an over-protective voice, threatening him again. "If you done anything to her, you better be careful!" With that he dragged Lili out from the room.

"Don't take his words into your heart. He can't be quite over-protective when it comes to his sister." Elizabeta told him. "Well, I'm off for work. Feel free to call me if you wish." She said before leaving Arthur alone in his room.

Arthur let out a sigh before letting himself fall on the bed, chest up. Why is he so stupid? If he don't get curious regarding the castle and try to get to this place, he won't meet that stupid frog and ended up living among these not even human, not even fairy creatures. There's nothing he'd find useful here, what should he do? He can't go back, neither has he had any leads to start with.

"It seems like we have visitors." Another voice said. Arthur opened his eyes to see a little oozlum bird trying to fly down from the shelves but it ended up slamming itself on the bed. Wait a minute, is that bird really alive? He took a closer look. That bird has scratches all over its body, cotton can be seen coming out from those 'scars' on its body and wings, which makes it unable to fly. Realisation soon hit him, this wasn't any living bird, but a doll that resemble an oozlum bird.

"Are you alright?" He gently picked up the little plush toy.

"Ravis, didn't I told you not to run away. What if you got hurt or something bad happens?" Two other dolls came falling off from the shelves. One resembles a little green dinosaur and the other one looks like a mochi that wears… Glasses? The both of them also have scars and bruises all over their body with cotton puffing out of it.

"So you're Arthur, we have heard a lot about you." The dinosaur said. "My name is Toris, that little one is Ravis." He gestured towards the little oozlum bird. "And I'm Eduard." The mochi chirped in.

"Da, don't forget me!" Another person's voice soon echoed in the room. It sounds a little childish but there's a dark threat behind it. Upon hearing this, the three dolls froze and they shivered in fear, an intimidating aura clouded the room.

"Who's that?" Arthur asked, trying to locate the voice.

"It's HIM…" Toris said as he tried to calm himself down but failed very much.

"Who?" Arthur inquired.

"The castle's general, I-Ivan Bragkinski…"

"VOOODDKAAAAAAA!" Another doll soon landed hard on Arthur's head and hit the bed subsequently.

"Ouch!" Arthur yelled, rubbing the newly formed bump on his head. Ravis fainted upon seeing that doll. Eduard and Toris shivered as well.

"Da, why are all of you so scared?" This doll, it does not consist of cotton and cloth but a round base with hard and sturdy body. It has an innocent, childish face. "You shouldn't hate a matryoshka doll, they are cute and they like huggies, da?"

"Excuse me?" Arthur inquired.

"Oh, I haven't seen you before. Are you new here?" The Russian doll suddenly opened up and out came a HUGE dog. That dog, rather, a hellhound, leaped onto him, pushing his frail body onto the bed and started licking him in his face. "Привет, I'm Ivan and I like warm hugs. Human's actually is the best!" He stopped to talk for a while before resuming licking him.

"A-A hellhound?!… In a matryoshka doll?! Wh-What's fuckin' going on?! H-Hey… Stop it! It tickles!" Arthur struggled a bit under the huge animal iron-like grip, careful not to let the creature's claws hurt him.

"You're so warm, da." The creature continued to snuggle with him. "Matryoshka dolls are not like plush dolls which are soft and warm but we are so hard and cold.

"So you actually ripped those plush toys?" The prince asked, glad that Ivan had released his deathly grip on him without leaving any scars, allowing him to breathe properly.

"Da. They're so warm and isn't it nice to be hug?" The creature smiled back, his face flashed with innocence.

Arthur felt his blood ran cold towards the hellhound behaviour. This person doesn't have feeling to anyone at all. Though he may look cute from the outside, his personality is the other way round! Seriously, how can this person be the general in this place? And how's he going to freakin' live with this horrible being?! He's sure he'd gone insane before that!

"Er… Master Ivan, he looks tired. Why don't we just let him rest for the time being?" Toris seemed to notice the poor boy complexion has gotten paler than before and decided to get Ivan away even though his body started shaking even worse.

"But I haven't finished talking yet." The hellhound whined, making a childish grin.

"You can talk with him later. He needs a lot of rest by now." Eduard persuaded, trying to get Ivan off.

"Da, fine." To all their relief, the hellhound finally retreated back into its shell and get of the bed.

"You should be careful of him. He may look and act like a child, but his heart is not that of what you thought." Eduard warned him. "And he even hurt us." He said referring to the 'scars' on their bodies.

"Thank you for your advice. I'll help to mend you guys when I was free." Arthur said as he crawled onto bed.

"Eduard, let him rest. Leave him for the moment." Toris whispered to him and Eduard has no objections to that. The two of them carried the still fainting Ravis out of bed so they could let Arthur sleep in peace.

Arthur stifled a yawn before getting under the covers. He _really_ is tired. _Just a little nap_, he told to himself before closing his eyes, letting sleep taking over him.

* * *

"Arthur-san? Is anyone inside?" Arthur soon stirred awake from the sounds of knocks coming from the door. He yawned and rubbed his eyes a little before standing up to answer it.

"U-Uh… Good morning…" Arthur greeted to the creature standing by the doorway bluntly.

The creature, a nine-tails fox was standing by the doorway. "It's almost evening already, Arthur-san." The creature replied.

"I-Is that so? … Sorry…" Arthur apologized sheepishly.

"Anyway, can I come in?" The fox asked and Arthur complied without any objections.

Once the fox entered the room, he bowed and introduced himself, "Pleased to meet you, Arthur-san. I was once a human but was turned into a kitsune… For a certain reason. My name is Honda Kiku. I served as the butler and close servant to His Highness Francis. I will also be serving as your personal servant."

"You don't have to so formal." Arthur said. "What brings you here?"

"I have brought you some clothes so that you can wear it during your stay here." Kiku said while putting the clothes he carried along on the bed. They looked a lot different compared to the clothes in his country. Either they were out of date, or they were too… Fancy? Are those even clothes for men? They somehow look more like a dress!

"And I have also appointed some servants for you too." He said. "If I'm not wrong, he should be here in a short while."

All of a sudden, a racoon like creature banged into the room. It was brown with some white stripes on its body. Its eyes were green and there's a curl on its head. "I'm sorry for being late!" The creature replied, out of breath.

"It's okay, Lovino. We won't mind." Kiku replied.

"Ve~ Fratello, what's the rush?" Another racoon came running in. This creature has white fur but brown stripes and eyes. The curl also looks different compared with the other one.

"They are Tanuki. The brown one is Lovino whereas the white one is Feliciano." Kiku introduced to him. "Feliciano is the younger and happier one. He is his highness groom. I know that Lovino is kinda grumpy and can be hot-headed at certain times but I hope you won't mind with him being appointed to be your groom, is that alright?"

Arthur grimaced a little. He, having a groom? Never had he had people to tend to him during those times. That bloody frog must be quite a vain person to get a groom just so that he will look nice.

"Ciao! You must be Arthur, right?" Feliciano immediately went up to greet him. "That's mi fratello, Lovino."

"W-What?! You mean I have to be that person's groom?!" Lovino threw a disgusting look at Arthur. "There's no way I'm gonna fuckin' do this as good as you, Feliciano!"

"Fratello, don't say that. You're going to do well." Feliciano encouraged him. "Both of us have grandpa's talents, ve?"

"I'm not going to do this! I'm not just gonna stay back and watch you getting close to that potato bastard! If I were Francis' groom, I would have ripped his stupid head off for getting close to my fratello!"

"Ve~ What's so bad about Ludwig? He's very nice to me." Feliciano chirped.

"Now can you stop argueing in front of our guest?" Kiku demanded. The two Tanukis got silent immediately. "Lovino-kun, I believe you will do a great job, just like Feliciano. You just need to have more effort." He turned to give Lovino some encouragement.

"Ve~ Kiku's right. I'm sure you can do this, fratello." Feliciano said.

"It's rarely we got a human visitor and our chances may be quite low, so everyone has to be involved in this to break the curse. We would need a lot of effort in it." Kiku told them.

Human visitor? Curse? What are they talking about? Arthur who has been silent during the whole conversation overheard everything. He started poundered over what they've said.

"I won't force you, if you really don't want to be my groom. I don't mind." He suddenly spoke up, causing everyone to shift their attention to him.

"I-I will do…" Lovino said biting his teeth. "I can't remain useless forever."

"Very well then. I hope the two of you get along together." Kiku said preparing to take his leave. "Oh, I almost forgot. Arthur-san, his highness has invited you for dinner tonight, so please get yourself dress properly. Lovino will help you for that." He then turns to pull Feliciano out of the room. "Let's go, Feliciano."

* * *

It was not long later, Arthur found himself dressed in a blue tunic made of the finest silk, it even covered his legs, making him feels like he's wearing a dress. Lovino had told him that the suit is actually designed by Feliciano, since he has to work out with that bloody frog's attire.

"Arthur-san, are you ready? It's almost time." Kiku's voice soon reappeared at the door. "Francis-sama has requested to meet you for dinner."

He fumbled for a moment, wondering whether should he accept or reject the frog's offer. _It could be a trap_, he thought to himself. Seeing how the frog behaved towards him, the frog may have some tricks on its sleeves to fool him. Moreover, a frog's food is disgusting, there's no way he would share his food and eat together with a frog bastard.

"Arthur-san, are you in there?" The kitsune asked at the door, receiving no reply from the English prince.

"Kiku, tell that bloody frog that I'm not gonna come down to eat. I'm just too tired and not feeling well at the moment…" Arthur pleaded, trying to convince Kiku to buy his excuse.

"If that's so, I'll tell him about it. You better have some rest." Kiku left without questioning further, to his relief, but that relief didn't last long.

"How dare he?! How dare he reject my offer! Is it what I gave is still no enough for him?!" As expected, the frog got enraged at what Kiku told him. "You should force him!"

"Dude, that's the worst thing I had ever heard from you." Alfred exclaimed. "The reason he rejects you is because you rejects him in the first place."

"Yeah, yeah, well said. I shouldn't have listened to what the two of you said and shouldn't have let him stay."

"You let him free is because you are annoyed by us but not because you want to break the curse." Alfred retorted back.

"Shut up your gob!" The frog growled. "I don't need a little brat like you to teach me!"

"Behave yourself, your highness." Ludwig yelled at him. "I understand Arthur is being tired for being trapped in the dungeons for one whole day. If you would be a little gentler and sincere, perhaps he would reconsider it."

The dining hall soon got silent. The frog soon got into deep thought, some of the servants whispered to each other.

"Fine. I'll go to his room and share my meal with him." Francis said as he took small steps towards Arthur's room. The rest of the servants watched him left and some facepalmed, seriously their prince need a lesson.

"Ve~ Ludwig, his highness lost his temper again!" Feliciano grabbed onto the Hakutaku as if he was his life source.

"Seriously, I need to lecture him later." Ludwig shook his head of disapproval, poundering what will the frog do to Arthur.

"_Mon cher_, it's me, Francis, the most beautiful frog of the world!" Francis soon came to Arthur's doorstep and practically announced his arrival. "Open the door, ma Cherie. I have brought your food for you."

"Go… Away…" Arthur groaned in annoyance as he placed his head under the pillow as an attempt to chase away the noises outside. "I'm not going to eat that fuckin' dish of yours, frog!"

"How dare you reject the most beautiful frog in the world!" Once again, this angered Francis even further. "There's no use objecting, I will enter by force!"

Much to Arthur's surprise, how can a frog, so small and frail, can actually slam the door open?! He soon found himself tackled on the bed with the frog above his chest, holding the plate of food.

"Didn't I have given you what I was supposed to give?! Won't you appreciate a little of my hospitality, _vous gosse ingrat_?" The frog asked him.

"There's no such way you could treat me with hospitality, it's damn fucking hostility!" Arthur retorted back as the rest of the servants gathered outside the room to watch the scene before them unfold. "And your food is disgusting! I'm not going to bloody eat your food. Thank you!"

"How can you said that _ma nourriture_ is disgusting?!" The frog yelled back. "My meals are always prepared by the most famous and amazing chef in the world. My castle has the best design ever and my country has the richest culture in the world!" Francis started to boast himself again.

"If you have all the idiotic best of the world, then why was your country in such a state?!" But then, Arthur retorted back again. "Didn't you know that your people are suffering from famine and poverty?! Why won't you recover your country and help your people?! Even if your castle is the most fancy one ever, there's no way it can compare to anything but just a piece of shit because you're so useless!" The servants gasped at what Arthur had said. "Is it living in the castle is all about enjoying life and abandoned those outside to fend for themselves?!"

The frog was silent for the moment, amazed by what his 'slave'has said to him.

"That was _un discours étonnant_, my dear _Angleterre esclave_." Francis said full of amusement. "But mind your manners. Is that how you treat your _maître_?!" But that amusement quickly turned to anger.

Though Arthur don't really understand what the frog said, but damn fucking it! That frog actually treated him as a slave instead of a visitor! This was something that made him angry.

"You badass frog! I'm not your bloody slave, nor are you my fucking master!" Arthur shouted back.

This time, Francis' anger had hit its boiling point. He angrily slammed the food onto the ground into a pulp and yelled back, "_Gosse ingrat_! This is what you get for not obeying and appreciating what your master gives to you!"

"Your highness, hold yourself!" Ludwig tried to stop him.

"This is your price!" The frog said, as if he was the judge. "Since you want to hide yourself away, then let it be! I won't mind if you are starved to death! You'll be locked in this room for your entire life with nothing but yourself! I'll see how long can you witstand this!" With that, he stormed out of the room.

The servants quickly left from the spot, not daring to get themselves being spot by the angry frog. They knew that if Francis appoints them at this time, they are surely to get in trouble. Even Ludwig just silently left the scene, not daring to give the frog prince a lecture. No one stands for Arthur's ground, they are too scared to add oil into Francis' anger.

* * *

Later that night, Arthur found himself sleepless, again. His stomach suddenly groaned, telling him he is hungry. He hasn't eaten a single thing, save the bowl of soup he drank when he arrived France, that was not enough. He starved another one whole day yesterday and he was so stubborn to reject the food just because he doesn't want to share it with a frog. He hated to admit but to surrender that he's really starving at this point and regret a little for turning down the offer just to hide away from that bloody frog.

Perhaps he should sneak to the kitchen and get something to eat, it won't be hard, will it? The only hardest way is to find out the kitchen location by himself and if he get caught by a servant, he may be doomed.

"Dude, why did ya reject Francis' offer just now?" Alfred suddenly appeared at the window.

"Al-Alfred? Why are you doing here in the middle of the night? You're supposed to sleep." Arthur asked.

"Dude, there's no need to speak like an adult to a child. I'm already 15 years old and I'm a hero!"

"Oh quiet down, Al. You will wake people up." A softer voice said.

"Who are you?" The yellow-headed bird stared at the other bird as if he was a stranger.

"I-I'm Matthew!" The black little Tengu shouted.

The mochi doll soon leaped onto his bed with the other dolls followed. "They're right. I knew our prince can be quite annoying and stubborn at times but don't you think you should try to tolerate with him?" Eduard asked him, twitching his glasses a bit.

"Do I have to tolerate him because of his behaviour?! He will be spoiled if I treated him that way!"

The rest of the creatures in the room sighed. Indeed, with both their personality, it's very hard to make them fall in love for each other to break the curse. They criticized Arthur for being stubborn but at the same time can't deny the fact that their prince is too arrogant due to his childhood of being spoiled. It seems like things are getting harder than what they thought.

"Why don't we help you with it, da?" Everyone soon turn their attention to the matryoshka doll. All have a gaped expression on their face.

"Dude, there's no need for such a creepy person like you to interfere. I will do it myself because I'm the hero!" Alfred boasted himself.

"Kolkolkol…" The matryoshka doll suddenly began to growl under his breath which cause the rest of the occupants in the room to shiver at the purple aura emitted by that creepy doll, praying that the hellhound won't pounce out from its shell.

"Whatever, what is your plan, commie? Perhaps it's awesome enough?" Alfred finally let in a little and let Ivan be.

Upon hearing the yellow-head bird's words, the doll once again regained his childish grin as if nothing had happened. "Da, I'm sure everyone here wish for the spell to be break, isn't it?" The Russian doll questioned.

"Y-Yeah, s-so what's g-going to do w-with it?" The other bird asked nervously.

"Why don't all of us do this together to get them together, da? It will help a lot rather than just sitting down and wait, isn't it?"

"Dude, I hate to admit but you are right. We have to work together to put everything in one piece." Alfred soon agreed without having a second thought. "Trust me, I'll be the lead because I'm the hero!"

"As loud as ever, Alfred…" Toris sighed and shook his head a bit.

"B-But do you k-know where to start?" Matthew soft voice asked, but no one noticed it.

"W-What are you guys talking about? Get who together?" Arthur who had been silent for a moment asked in confusion of what they are talking about.

"Dude, we are going to help yer!" Alfred said unable to hold his excitement. "I'm sure that frog is going to open up to you in no time and living in here won't be a hell for you anymore." He reassured.

"Really? Can you do it?" Arthur asked eagerly.

"It's no problem. I'm the hero afterall! So… Where shall we start first?"

The rest of the servants' facepalmed at Alfred's statement. He is ambitious and has a fancy of being a hero but then he was just too blunt when it comes to things.

"First of all, Arthur need to befriend with all the servants in the castle. By that, everyone is willing to help." Eduard said shifting his glasses a bit.

"Speaking of which, are you hungry, Arthur?" Toris asked with concern.

There's no need an answer from Arthur as his stomach suddenly growled again. This time, the sound is louder as a signal of his hunger. He blushed a bit at the sound made.

"Oh Jesus, I almost forgot. We actually can here to invite him to the dining." Alfred suddenly reminded himself. "So let's go and get your tummy filled up." He said preparing to leave.

"Can I come with you?" The matryoshka doll asked with enthusiasm.

"Um… Sure." Arthur replied after considering for a while. Ivan then happily leaped onto his shoulder to follow him.

Arthur walked at the hallway, careful not to make any sound to disturb the rest. But soon, he was noticed by Feliciano, Lovino, Ludwig and Kiku who were doing patrolling in the middle of the night.

"Oh, Arthur-san, aren't you suppose to go to sleep?" Kiku asked as one of his tails shifted the candle it is holding to another tail.

"He's hungry and he wants something to eat." Alfred explained.

"Ve~ You know how worry we are, for you not to eat anything for almost two days." Feliciano said worrily.

"I'm sorry." Ludwig apologized. "Please don't put what he said into your heart. He's just too angry and he's quite a spoil child."

"You don't have to apologize for that frog's sake." Arthur said and turned to Feliciano, "Feliciano, I thought you and your brother are just a groom, why the both of you are here?"

"Ve~ I just want to follow Ludwig wherever he go." The white tanuki replied cheerfully.

"And I just want to kick that fucking potato bastard ass if he did something to my brother." Lovino added.

"Well, it's not a problem." Kiku said. "Let's go to the kitchen." The group soon headed off to the kitchen.

"Aru! How dare that Francis just let the food go waste like that?!" While on the way to the kitchen, they can already hear a certain commotion a distance away.

"Master, you shouldn't get angry. Don't set the kitchen on fire!"

"I would have do it, aru! I'll see how that spoiled brat will react if his most beloved kitchen was being blast into ashes, aru!"

"What's the commotion here?" Ludwig was the first one to break the argument.

"It's nothing, Ludwig. I just cleaned Arthur's room and was preparing to throw away the leftovers." Elizabeta explained.

"And that dish I had spent such a long time preparing it was ruined, all because of that frog and that visitor, ahen!"

"Yao-san, why don't you calm down a little?" Kiku suggested calmly. "There's a lot of things we have to settle."

"Oh oh oh!" Is Arthur seeing things? In front of him, he saw a lump of gas floating towards him. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the creature has face like human do and there appears to be a curl on the head side.

"_Annyeong_, I'm Im Yong Soo!" That creature talked to him, so it's real!

"What are you actually?" Arthur asked, chill crawled up his spine.

"Don't you know? I'm a Korean spirit, daze! Korean spirit originated from me anyway!" He said in a cheerful tone. The spirit then flew to Kiku as an attempt to flirt him but Kiku just swated him away.

"Kiku-chan, it's been a while." A phoenix flies towards Kiku. "How's work? Don't overwork yourself too much." It lightly pecked Kiku on the forehead.

"Arthur-san, this is Mei. She's one of the cooks in here." Kiku told Arthur after a short conversation with the phoenix, or Mei, as what he said.

There's also a Kirin and a dragon in the kitchen. The Kirin doesn't seems to show any sorts of emotion at all while the dragon looks kind of angry and smoke can be seen coming out from its nose and jaws as if it is going to spew fire at any moment.

"That Kirin is the chef's helper. He is Kaoru." Elizabeta introduced to him. "As for the dragon…"

Before Elizabeta could finish her sentence, Ivan suddenly breaks out from his 'doll armor' and practically has himself pounced onto the dragon, hugging and licking it as if it was a lost friend.

"Yao-Yao, I missed you!" Ivan said as he hugged even tighter.

"Ivan, get out of me! I can't breathe, aru!" The dragon got even annoyed.

"Oh come on, we are suppose to be dating, da?" The hellhound asked childishly. "I missed your delicious food. Can't you cook something for me?"

"I'm not in the mood for that, aru!" The dragon huffed and swated the giant dog out of him.

"I'm Yao. I'm in charge of the kitchen here, aru." The dragon introduced himself to Arthur. "And I supposed you're the visitor from _英国_, ahen?"

"It's Arthur." Arthur corrected.

"Dude, he's hungry. Would you mind making some food for him?" Alfred cut in the conversation.

The dragon groaned a little, lucky that he's not breathing any fire. "You know how the food gone waste just now because of you and that frog, ahen! Be sure you eat everything and don't let the food go waste."

Everyone sighed with relief. For the least Yao was willing to do it and not set the kitchen on fire.

"Aiyah, Yong Soo, where's the ingredients?" Yao asked as Kaoru and Mei get ready to cook.

"The ingredients will come out once I get aniki's breast!" The Korean spirit said flirtatiously, which caused the dragon to breath fire at him.

"_再不认真点的话，你休想这么做！_" The dragon yelled at Yong Soo while spewing fire to keep the distance (Because he can't smack a ghost with his tail).

The little spirit flinched a little at his 'aniki' behaviour and obeyed his orders without protest.

While waiting for the food to be done, the rest sit down and start talking to each other. Yong Soo and Ivan would annoyed Yao from time to time. Kiku will try to help Mei. Feliciano would ask Ludwig for a hug if he got scared by Yao's temper and Ivan's aura while Lovino would continue to drown Ludwig with curses.

"So Arthur, are you really from England?" Elizabeta asked politely.

"It seems like you haven't tell us much about yourself, Arthur-san? Do you mind if we asked?" Kiku soon entered the conversation.

Arthur took a deep breathe before letting out a sigh. He don't really like to share his story together with them but they are the only ones he could confide in by now.

"To be exact, I'm actually the prince of England…" He told them everything, almost everything. About how he actually lived as a commoner until he realised he was a prince, how his brothers behaved towards him and then the war in the country and how he manage to get here. He didn't even realised that tears were forming in his eyes.

"It seems like you have been through a lot." The Kirin, Kaoru, said as he handed Arthur a bowl of congee.

"Please enjoy the food while it is still hot." The phoenix said.

Arthur took a small sip of the congee. When it does not burn his tongue, he smiled a little and thanked them. "The food is nice. Thank you so much."

"_不用客气。_" The dragon replied, now being enveloped in the hellhound's warm hugs.

"Yao-Yao, you are so warm, da?"

"Shut up!" The rest just ignored them.

"It must have been hard on you, Arthur-san." Kiku said with sympathy. "So you actually came here so that you could ask for help, right?"

Arthur nodded a little while taking another sip of his congee. "But I guess there's nothing I could do now, since little of you could help." He sighed a little before continue, "Besides, my country is not in good terms with France. There's no way that arrogant bloody frog of your prince could do that for me."

Everyone was silent for a moment until Yao broke it. "I understand what you mean, ahen. But since you are here already and with how both countries' states are in… Could it be a prophecy that something is going to happen between the two countries?" He made a prediction.

"Don't be superstitious, Yao-san." Kiku said.

"But I can feel it…" The dragon closed his eyes for concentration before reciting a poem.

_I see ripples on the usually still water._

_A single white rose laying untouched dyed into colours._

_An unrequited love that melted the past,_

_Forgiving and accepting each other._

_Should you survived and endured the flames of a demon?_

_Or leave with thousands of tears washing over an eternal curse?_

_When the sun sets, a storm landed,_

_A cursed country and a tearing kingdom,_

_The chosen one, the destinated soul,_

_Would heal the forgotten wounds and calm the storm._

_It's a long journey ahead,_

_A single step, true feeling for each other opens the lock to the answer._

Arthur could sense a tinge of shivers across his spine as he listen to the dragon reciting the poem. "W-What… What does th-that means?" He took a shaky breath before asking.

"If you could make His Highness opens his heart to you and everyone, make him realise his mistakes and correct him to the right path, a chains of events will be disrupted. Whether you succeed in your mission or not, it depends on all of us here. A wrong move is to doom our future forever." Yao explained.

"It can't be! Don't tell me I have to be like this forever!" Feliciano said, crying and hugging to Ludwig all the while after Yao told them the prophecy.

"You don't mean…" Matthew asked in disbelief.

"If we all want this to work, we have to do this together." The dragon suggested. "Since we are already running out of time, all of us have to break this. It's now or never!"

The kitchen once again gotten quiet again. This time was filled with mutters of agreement.

"I will accompany you for a walk around the castle tomorrow." Kiku volunteered. "You have to know more about the castle so you should know how to approach Francis."

"And I will continue to teach His Highness to behave properly." Ludwig said.

The conversation continued until when everyone is tired and decided to go to bed. The kitchen becomes death as everyone has left, leaving only a single moonlight shining into the room.

Coming out from his hiding spot, Francis looked at the balcony outside as he was in deep thought. The frog felt envious and a tinge of jealousy hit him. Why does everyone get along with his Angleterre slave but not him? He wants to lock himself away from people but part of him told him this is his last and only chance to be loved before his times up. Deep down within his heart, he could felt the pain and bitterness in it, just what is it?

TBC…

xXx

Phew… Quite a long chapter, but finally done. I have been drown with homeworks and projects for the past days and there are complaint all over the place. :( *sigh* Sorry to keep you all waiting.

I would have to thank all of you for reading and supporting this story. You have made me to write more, thank you so much! :3 Though I have a hard time writing this part, the characters personality are not really that vivid. I promise to make the characters' personality, behaviour and speech more perfect as the characters in Hetalia.

Oooooh, Francis, you're as bad as ever. Poor Angleterre, he got sucked by a bloody frog. XD Yeah, and what do you think? The servants have finally made their appearance but it's only half of them by now. More servants will be appearing by the next upcoming chapters. And of those pairings I have included in here is GerIta, Rochu, Japan/Taiwan. I will see if there's more to be added.

So, the characters, servants that made their debut in this chapter:

Vash (**Switzerland**) – He's a goldhorn. A type of goat with weird looking horns as it was mentioned that Switzerland has goats. He works as a knight (why not?) and his weapon is his horns.

Lili (**Liechtenstein**) – Zashiki-warashi, a yokai that is said to bring good fortune when it was in the house. I made her this role because she resembles the Zashiki-warashi in the anime Nurarihyon no Mago.

Elizabeta (**Hungary**) – Since Hungary has been a maid, that's where her role is. She is a Yuki-Onna because I think she's pretty and if you get her angry she will freeze you!

Toris (**Lithuania**), Eduard (**Estonia**) & Ravis (**Latvia**) – The Baltics. Can you believe it? They are plush toys. Toris is the dinosaur doll, since I don't know what I have to put him as, Eduard is the mochi because he is said to have a collections of mochis and Latvia is an Oozlum Bird (or ouzelum) because he is easily afraid and is weak like a bird. Poor little ones, they got hurt so badly because of Russia's bear hug.

Ivan (**Russia**) – Hellhound in a matryoshka doll (Russian doll)! Doesn't that sounds like Jack in the Box? This actually pictures his childish and cute feature while inside being a beast. But he's sooo cute and likes warm hugs because Russia is a cold place.

Kiku (**Japan**) – Kitsune, a nine-tails fox yokai in the Japanese folklore. Since I always see Japan dressed as a fox in fan art, so I decided to let him be the role. It was mentioned that a fox split its tail when it has grown older and therefore, wiser as well, which explain Japan's old age and ability to read the atmosphere.

Feliciano (**Italy**) & Lovino (**Romano**) - Racoon-like yokai, known as Tanukis. These creatures are quite harmless (which I said the Italy bros are 'useless') and can be quite mischievious in pulling pranks. Italy is made as Francis' groom because he's artistic.

Yao (**China**) – A dragon, since dragon is a symbolic animal in China and a sign of longevity that shows his immortality. He's good in cooking so he is the chef.

Kaoru (**Hong Kong**) & Mei (**Taiwan**) – Since both Hong Kong and Taiwan were past colonies of China and they are known to be the Chinese trios. Hong Kong is a Kirin, which is a deer with thick coat and magnificent stags on its head. Taiwan is a phoenix since Chinese people would describe a young, beautiful girl to be a phoenix. Both creatures are said to bring good fortunes to people in folklore.

Im Yong Soo (**Korea**) – They would draw face on Korea's curl to symbolise Korean spirit. I know that spirit actually refers to how Korean behaves in protecting their land but I made it as an object, so he may look no different with any ghost. And he can flirt people without being notice!

This is another long chapter. More servants will be reveal at the coming chapter. I started to wonder how I should continue this story. It may took a little longer for me to come up something new. Until then, have fun reading and feel free to leave a review and stay tuned for the next chapter.

Hetalia do not belongs to me.

Translations:

[French]

_vous gosse ingrate: _You ungrateful brat

_ma nourriture: _My food

_un discours étonnant: _An amazing speech

_esclave: _Slave

_maître: _Master

[Korean]

_Annyeong: _Hi there

[Chinese] (Sorry, I don't really know how to type han yu)

_英国__ (Ying Guo) : _England

_再不认真点的话，你休想这么做__ (zai bu ren zhen dian de hua, ni xiu xiang zheme zuo): _If you don't take this serious, don't ever think of doing it!

_不用客气__ (bu yong ke qi): _No need to thank


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 8: Hopes

"Wake up, _segaiolo_!" The morning wasn't a good start for Arthur. His peaceful dreamless slumber was quickly ruined as a certain voice wake him up abruptly from what he yearned for.

"It's late already! Can't you just get up and have my job done?!" He groaned a little before sitting up on bed, sleep is still visible in his eyes.

"Your clothes are ready on the tray I placed on the dressing table! Remember to wear it and don't fuckin' dirty it!" Lovino said as he excused himself. "Bella will come to take you down to the dining room later." He added.

It was lucky that Lovino did not prepare a way too fancy outfit for him. It was a bit oversized, but it still fit him anyway. "God, why did I agree with work with those bastards servants anyway?" He asked himself. "I would have fucking get out from this bloody place already…" He rambled on as he twidled his fingers in the light blue fabric Lovino made him wear.

"That idiot frog…" He muttered under his breath. Who would care of a narcissistic frog that cares for nothing but himself? Why would he care to help him? It's not like the frog is like his fairy friends. He wants to get out of here. If not, that Francis frog is going to make him crazy.

His thought was soon interrupted when he heard knocks on the door and he answered immediately.

"Morning Arthur, did you sleep well last night?" He was greeted by two creatures that kind of reminded him of his friend, Flying Mint Bunny but they looked different. The one who greeted him was a pink little cat with wings on its body and stags(?) of an antelope on its head. The other one looks almost the same as the pink cat but it was blue and has rabbit ears instead.

"Breakfast is ready. Hurry up and get your lazy back down here to eat!" The flying blue bunny said, somehow quite annoying.

"Brother, don't be rude. You'll scare him!" The cat said.

"Just quickly get him down so that I could go back to sleep." The rabbit said grumpily and stifled a yawn.

"But you have slept one whole day, brother. You still have work to do."

"Not when I was in this state." The bunny said as he flied away.

The pink cat sighed and shook its head a little before turning back to Arthur. "Ignore him, he's always like that." It then led Arthur out of the room.

"My name is Bella and that is actually my brother, Tim." She said. "We are actually wolpertinger though I look more like a cat while my brother is rabbit."

Bella led Arthur down flights of stairs to the dining room. "Everyone is so excited when they heard about you, it's been a while since we have a human visitor." She kept chatting on while walking down the stairs.

"As I ask, what actually happen here?" Arthur shot a question in the middle of nowhere.

Bella made a forced smile before answering, "This is hard to explain…" She heaved a sigh. "We were all being dragged into this because of his highness. Ever since that thing happened, his highness has changed completely, he would isolated himself from us, the time we get together got even lesser and lesser that he stopped us from seeing him except for the close servants."

So is that what the frog wants? A place and person where he could belong? But he seems to have done the wrong thing…

"We all know that he was truly regret of what he had done in the past but was too stubborn to admit it. He thought he is a burden to us and is ashamed to face everyone." Bella continued. "So that's why we wish you to stay. Make him realise his mistakes and teach him the proper way to learn to love someone." She pleaded him. "I know it may be hard or he is a very annoying person but you are the last chance we have. Please, I beg you with all my heart and everyone's wish, save his highness Francis from his misery."

At the moment, Arthur felt himself speechless. His father has high expectation on him but now even the people here have their hopes on him. He himself, to change that bloody frog ways of thoughts and behaviour and make him freaking realise his mistakes… He once learned how to care for his people but not an idiotic frog and to give it something abstract not anything materialistic. Just how is he going to do this?

"Morning Arthur-san, we have been waiting for you." Upon arriving the kitchen, he was greeted by Kiku and the rest of the kitchen staff. "Did you sleep well last night? We have prepared pancakes as breakfast for today." He said while gesturing Arthur to take a seat.

"Mmm… Yum-yum, the pancakes are deeelicious~" Alfred said in a sing-song voice as he pecked on the pancakes one-by-one. Matthew on the other hand just drowned his pancakes with some sticky syrup.

Arthur can't help but smiled a little seeing the two 'little ones' having their breakfast as he took a bite of his. Kiku soon excused himself to send breakfast for that frog bastard who said that he's too tired to come down to eat.

"You should stop spoiling him like he's a child…" Arthur said while he was busy munching and chewing his pancakes. "Or else he will never realise his mistakes."

Everyone turned their attention on him, surprised by what he said. "No one dares to disobey his highness, aru." Yao said as he tried to get out of Ivan's bear hug.

"That's the reason why he behaved like an idiot!" He said while taking another bite. "He will never appreciate any one of your contribution because he thinks so highly of himself."

Everyone was silence at his speech. No one dare to object what the prince had said. Kiku just left without saying another word. The rest of the servants muttered in agreement of what he had said.

* * *

Arthur finished his breakfast and leave without saying a word. He soon met up with a happy go lucky Feliciano.

"Ve~ Arthur, how was breakfast? You don't look so happy." The white tanuki hugged him.

"No, I'm just fine." Arthur lied but his facial expression betrayed him. Thankfully that Feliciano is always obnoxious to his surrounding, which he somehow managed to mislook Arthur's expression.

"You should meet the rest of us. They are so excited when they heard there's a human visitor and I'm sure you will be happy." Feliciano said.

"Feliciano, there you are. His highness needs you at the moment." Ludwig suddenly appeared in the hallway, almost frightening the two of them.

"Ve~ Ludwig, I just want to talk with Arthur and take him around." Feliciano said, making a pair of puppy eyes but Ludwig doesn't seem to buy it.

"Don't slack off from your job. Let Kiku do this, it's his job anyway." The hakutaku gleamed its eyes a threatening glare, making the tanuki shivered.

"Don't worry. I'm the hero! Let me do it anyway!" A childish voice chirped in and in came the yellow-headed tengu followed by another. "I will take you around the place!" Alfred declared, willingly taking up the job.

With that, Arthur soon found himself walking in a garden full of untended plants. Vines and tendrils climbed all over the fence and wall. The wild grass marked their territory in the once beautiful garden. There's no flower bloom in this area, just a place of dumped green and abandoned beauty.

"Al, I don't think this is a nice place to look at." The other bird said. What was his name already?

"Dude, it was that jerk Francis left his garden untended. It would have been a lot more beautiful if he cares for it." Alfred said. "Hey Artie dude, I know this place is not to your liking but there's only one thing beautiful that you would love it, trust me."

"Don't call me that!"

"But it sounds very cute and a lot better than your name." Alfred said cheekily.

"Are you saying my name is not good?" Arthur asked while shooting a glare. "So, what's this exciting thing you are talking about?"

Alfred and the other one (Arthur couldn't figure out what his name was) guided him to a fountain in a corner of the garden.

The water unlike the garden's condition was clear and clean like crystal. The gushing of water from the fountain disturbed the tranquillity of the surface, forming circular ripples that become bigger as it spread across the water surface.

Arthur starred at his own disrupted reflection for a moment before he noticed the ripples forming at a quicker pace. The almost still water suddenly was washed with waves and foam. He saw a figure of a creature beneath the water, appearing like a shadow and disappear in split seconds.

The water splashed itself up, wetting Arthur's face and some of his clothing but he could care less. He widened his eyes, blinking them as if he was seeing things. There, in front of him sat a mermaid. She has tanned skin, red corals held her black hair in two pigtails and a light blue tail covered her body from the chest to the bottom.

"A… A mermaid?" Arthur gasped. He'd never thought he could meet such a creature in his life.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Michelle." The mermaid introduced herself while smiling at him.

"_Sister Michelle_ is a great person." Matthew (he somehow manage to remember his name somewhere) told him. "She can tell you many things we don't know. Even papa Francis gets happy when she's around."

"I've heard so much about you, your highness of England." Michelle said politely.

"Um… Just call me Arthur…" Arthur said sheepishly.

"Well, I hope you can enjoy your stay in France and please teach Francis how to love a person back." She said while making a wink.

"There's no way I'm going to love a bloody frog like him!" Arthur said despite the tinge of red that was creeping up his face.

"I could tell that master Francis has taken a liking on you but just like you, he was too stubborn to admit it." She said, the twins snickered at Arthur's expression.

"Alfred, Matthew, there you are." Kiku suddenly came running into the garden. "Just what are you thinking the two of you are doing here?"

"Don't worry, I'm the hero!" Alfred, once again the self-proclaimed hero boasted himself. "I'll make sure that our guest returned unscathed and everyone's alright."

"Francis-sama will not be pleased if he sees the two of you running everywhere messing around." The kitsune said with a sigh. "Why don't the two of you go to play in your own play room while I take Arthur-san a tour around the place instead?" Much to his relief, Alfred barely makes any objection this time as the two of them left the place immediately.

"I see you met Michelle." Kiku said, Michelle just smiled. "I hope the two of you get along."

"Don't worry, Kiku. I will do my job to make sure our plan works." Michelle said with a wink.

"Thanks a lot, how was Francis doing today?" Kiku inquiried.

"He is as stubborn as usual." Michelle said with a sigh. "He just refuses to see anyone except me and when meals were delivered."

"I understand…" Kiku sighed as well, feeling a little disappointed. "I hope you can lighten him up a bit. I was going to borrow Arthur-san to walk around the castle."

"No problem. I will see you later." With that, Michelle dived back into the water and disappeared.

Kiku then led Arthur out from the garden to the borders of the castle ground. "What is Michelle's relationship with that damn frog?" Arthur asked once they were far enough.

"Well, Michelle was an orphan and was taken in as a servant since young. Surprisingly, Francis-sama somehow treated her better than anyone else and he is always seen to be happy when getting around her." Kiku explained.

_How can this be?_ Arthur thought to himself. If that idiot frog don't even know what love is, how can he actually treated Michelle so nice compared to the rest? Perhaps he and Francis should really change the feeling they had for each other, there's no use if they continue to disobey what they want…

While he was deep in his thought, he found himself being brought by Kiku to the stables. He was snapped out of his thought when a horse bit his shirt sleeve.

"Hey there, it seems like we got visitors." The horse said as he pulled Arthur by the sleeves to his side. "Finally I can find someone to wear my precious dresses."

"Let him go, Feliks. You are freaking him out." A white deer came up to stop him. "Moreover, he's a guy, not a girl."

"I don't care. I wear dresses even if I'm a guy." The horse huffed and let Arthur go.

Arthur walked back a few steps to get a better look of the horse that was called as Feliks. It's not really a horse, nor a unicorn. Its body was covered with smooth blonde fur, almost golden. Its hair was also smooth and shiny and long, untangled, forming bangs that just stop above its green eyes. It has a pair of blonde wings folded up above its body.

"That's Feliks." Kiku introduced to him. "He is a Pegasus and the stable boy of the castle."

"Aren't I beautiful? I am such a beautiful little pony!" Feliks chimed, trying to show his glory.

"He's weird…" Arthur mumbled audible enough for Kiku to hear.

"He likes to dress himself and talks like a girl and he also likes horses. I know you may find him weird but he didn't mean any harm after all." Kiku explained to him.

Vash soon walked up with Lili on his side. Arthur's blood went cold at the sight of the angry goldhorn.

"Don't you dare to get near my sister or I will kill you as a punishment!" As always, his warnings terrified Arthur.

"It's not like I would hurt her or get close to her anyway…"

"There's no need to be afraid of big brother. He's just a little overprotective." The zashiki-warashi walked up and consoled him. "I'm sure you will get use to him and be friends in no time."

"Lili, don't get close to him and don't you ever leave me!" Vash said in a protective tone.

"It's alright, brother. He won't hurt me if you promise not to hurt him." Lili smiled at Arthur before walking back to her brother.

"My name is Tino." The white deer from before decided to chirp in at this time. "I'm from Finland."

Arthur smiled a little, at least this white deer isn't that insane but soon he became horrified as he was met with a pair of icy cold blue eyes starring back at him with no sort of expression at all. He got shocked with a yelp and flinched a little.

"Don't ye' g't near m' w'fe." The owner of the eyes said in grunted voice, somehow reminding him of the way his brothers talk.

"That's Berwald." Tino said, though he shivered a bit. "He can be quite intimidating but he's actually quite friendly."

"Berwald-san, you are scaring our guest." Kiku said politely. Berwald, the white tiger back off a little to observe Arthur from head to toe before walking to the white deer's side.

"D'n't yer' ever l'ave m'." Berwald said to Tino. Arthur shivered uneasily. These creatures are driving him insane. Here, he was faced by the overprotective killer Vash, a certain guy who likes girly stuff and now a scary white tiger that does not show any emotions. Seriously, how can Tino alone handled these three people?

"Can we leave here now?" Arthur asked Kiku who was by his side all the time.

"Sure. The weather is getting cold, let's get you inside." With that, Kiku guided him back to the castle, much to his relief. There's no way he's going to see those three psychotic people.

"There's a library situated in this castle." Kiku said as he led Arthur up several flights of stairs.

"Really?" At the mention of a library, Arthur's eyes lit up with excitement, forgetting everything that has happened.

* * *

They walked up the steps to one of the room situated at the end of the east wing. Kiku opened the door and let Arthur entered. He soon found himself surrounded with numerous books collected in bookshelves high up to the ceiling.

"Wow…" Arthur gasped in amazement. The library in his place never had this much of books. A grand chandelier hung on the ceiling illuminating the room, making it much brighter compared to other rooms.

"How is it?" Kiku asked.

"It's… Beautiful…" Arthur answered back, too astounded to say anything else.

"I'm glad you like it." Kiku said happily as he watched Arthur leaf through the bookshelves searching for his favourite book.

"I just can't do this." He soon heard a person's voice from one side of the bookshelves.

"How can you say so? I'm sure you can do it, have confident on yourself." Arthur gasped, it was Elizabeta's voice.

"This piece of song is really hard. I just don't know how to compose it." The moment that person finished, he noticed a book moved out of the shelves by itself, dusted off the dust and flew across the shelf to the other side.

"Oh Roderich, you should try a new musical style instead. People change all the time." Elizabeta said. "Besides, whenever you need help, you can also ask Feliciano, he has quite a good talent in music too, you must have taught him quite well."

Curiousity soon crept across him as Arthur went after the book to find out who was this Roderich person. He followed the book and found it landing on the hands of a man standing beside Elizabeta. That man was also a ghost, almost similar to how Yong Soo would look but you can see his complete body despite he looked like a lump of fog. He wears a pair of glasses and there's also a curl on the side of his spicky black hair. He holds a violin at the other hand.

"Oh Arthur, what brings you here?" The moment Elizabeta noticed Arthur's presence, she greeted him. "Oh I see, Kiku is taking you around the castle for a tour."

"It seems like we have a human guest." That ghost observed Arthur for a while. "I doubt if the master has ever treated him properly."

"This is Roderich. He is a musician in the castle. He plays instrument by controlling them so he s actually a poltergeist for now." Elizabeta decided to ignore Roderich gestured to Arthur.

"Seriously Elizabeta, is this how you introduce me to him?" Roderich asked with a huff. "And do mind your manners! We have talked for so long and you didn't even introduce yourself to us, how haughty you are." He then mocked Arthur.

"Roderich, don't be rude to our guest." Elizabeta stopped him. "He is still new here and he needs time to get use to this place."

Roderich narrowed his eyes. "You are ruining my mood." With that, he collected all the books he need and vanish.

"Please excuse him, Arthur." Elizabeta said apologetically. "He's trying to come up with some new music but he can't made up his mind which made him so furious. I'm sure he will be in better mood some other time later."

Elizabeta left the library saying she still have some chores to be done. Arthur continued to wander around the library by himself.

He soon noticed a hidden passage between two bookshelves. Curiousity once again hit him and he entered the passage without further thought.

The passage was narrow and as it proceed, it gets darker. Arthur suddenly feel tense. He felt he was being watched and he would see green and purple flames floating in the darkness.

"What are you doing here?" A voice suddenly resounded, sending chills over his spine.

"No intruders are allowed to enter but since you are sharp enough to find your way and you are a precious guest to the castle, the master had granted permission to allow you to enter." The creature soon approached him, revealing itself to be a penguin like creature.

"You… You live here…" Arthur squeaked.

"It's not my territory, it belongs to the magician. I'm just his younger brother, the name's Emil." The creature introduced himself. "I shall guide you to my brother's chamber."

Arthur obeyed the little penguin's word without complaint. As they walked deeper, he noticed stacks of magical spell books and chemical experiment, some of the books were being burnt by coloured flames, while some were dirtied with chemical spilling all over it.

"Lukas, you should get out more often. I'm starving getting locked inside here." A loud, obnoxious voice whined.

"Then why don't you just get out yourself?! It's not like I'm inviting you here! Can't you see that I'm busy?!" Another voice.

"Just give up. There's no way you could use magic to break such a spell." The loud voice said. "You know how worried I am about you when you had locked yourself up for almost 10 years!"

"It's not like I need anything at all. Magic is my life source, I don't need food or fresh air or sunlight to survive. All I need is to perform magic to sustain myself."

When Arthur came into the two creatures' sight, both of them were silent for a moment as they turned their attention to their guest, absorbing his look and feature.

"Who did you bring here, Ice?" The fairy looking creature asked.

"My, isn't he cute. He looks like me!" The other creature, resembling a 'man?' holding a huge axe bigger than him just next to him, chimed in.

"This is the guest all the servants have been talking about, brother." Emil told them. "His name is Arthur Kirkland from England."

"Oh yes, I heard so much about you, Arthur." The fairy said as it approached Arthur. "I sensed your presence and you mean no harm to us and there's something special about you."

"Me? Something special?" Arthur asked confused with what he said.

"My name is Lukas, I'm Emil's brother and the magician who studies magic in this castle." He shot a glance at the other creature hanging himself on the wall with his axe as a sit bench. "And just ignore that idiot shinigami over there."

"Hey, I'm not any idiot and don't ignore me. The name's Mathias!" The shinigami yelled out. "I would say, Arthur. You look beautiful and delicious. It would be nice if I can consume your soul, it's been a while since I had a delicious soul." He said while licking the corner of his mouth which makes Arthur shivered and Lukas glared back at him.

"Don't you dare! He's not your food!" Lukas yelled back. "Why don't you go out and slain some useless spirit."

"That's a good idea! I'm starving to kill!" With that, Mathias left the magic chamber, much to the rest of the occupants' relief.

"Do you know anything about magic, Arthur?" Lukas asked once Mathias was out of sight.

"Of course I do. My country has magic in it and I do master some of it."

"Okay, step one complete and now I'm going to let you go through training to master magic, will you be fine by that?" He questioned again.

"I would love to!" When hearing that, Arthur perked up with anticipation.

"Good. You will master the secret art of true magic and proper ways of using it." Lukas said. "But be careful, every magic has its own limitation. You can't use more than excess of your magic powers or else you will consume yourself, so please be aware of it." Emil soon brings stacks of books from the shelves and placed it on Lukas' desk. "Come here every late night. We will practise without people disturbing."

"I see you spend a nice day today, Arthur-san." Later when dusk came, Kiku came to escort Arthur back.

"The library is amazing. I won't have to be bored anymore." Arthur said as he clutched the book he brought from the library tight in his grip as if it was a lost found treasure. "These books are just too precious."

"Well, you should get ready. Dinner is going to be done soon." Kiku said as they continued to walk back to the main hall.

Suddenly, something seems to attract Arthur's attention. He stopped in his tracks for a moment as he darted his eyes into the endless darkness of another unknown hallway that seems to stretch till no end.

The hallway was dark, no light could penetrate it like a dark hole. Arthur could hear something calling for him and he felt the need to get closer to that voice. Though part of him was trying to retract him from entering the eternal darkness but another part of him wants the voice to reach him.

"What's that?" He asked quietly as he bared his emerald green eyes into the mop of blackness.

"That place is off limit, Arthur-san. You're not allowed to enter there." Kiku advised him but those words fall on deaf ears. The butler failed to notice that Arthur had entered the hallway of darkness.

"… Come…" In the midst of the darkness, Arthur could hear someone calling out for him. He knew he has taken the worst and the way to hell but he can't help approaching a certain voice at the distance away, almost inaudible to listen.

There was no turning back now. He has to face it, before he could know…

TBC…

xXx

Cliffhanger! What will happen to our dear Angleterre? Send in your comment and suggestion for what was to happen next.

DUN! DUN! DUN! More servants had appeared, which one is your favourite? XD Now I had finish introducing the servants, I can finally concentrate on writing the story plot. So I would think the up coming story event would include Arthur learning about Francis' past, several celebrity… Which one do you want it to come first? The last part of course is what the main conflict takes place. Just because all of your support for this story made me just want to write more till the end! Thank you! :3

I'm not really sure when I was able to upload the next chapter. Things have been very busy at this moment but I will try to update the next one or two chapters by the end of this month. So please be patient for the moment when the next chapter is still in process.

Last of all, here's our characters who made their first debut:

Tim (Netherlands) & Bella (Belgium): It was mentioned that Netherlands has a rabbit and that's what inspired me. I actually wanted to make them as a pair of Flying Bunnies like Arthur's Flying Mint Bunny but later I found out about a mythical creature called a wolpertinger which resembles a rabbit or squirrel with horns and wings on it that changed my mind. Though, Belgium resembles a cat because her appearance is like a cat and cat festival originated from Belgium.

Michelle (Seychelles): Why not? Seychelles is an island girl and she always carry a fish with her all the time so a mermaid definitely suits her well.

Feliks (Poland): Poland loves horses and ponies. I also planned to make him a unicorn but then decided to make him a Pegasus so we can differentiate Sterling and Feliks.

Tino (Finland): Finland has reindeers and so he's a white deer since Nordics are pale in skin tone.

Berwald (Sweden): Sweden is mentioned to be the lion of Europe but since Ludwig has become the role of a lion so I made him a white tiger.

Roderich (Austria): A poltergeist, which is a phantom like creature that has the ability to control objects of its surroundings.

Emil (Iceland): Emil has a little pet puffin so I just make him a puffin.

Lukas (Norway): Norway is expert in magic so he's a pixie that wields magic.

Mathias (Denmark): I knew Spain wields a scythe but he's not part of the castle so I made Denmark a shinigami because of his BIG axe. He can also be cruel and loud.

Translation:

_Segaiolo (Italian): _Wanker

Sadly, I don't own anything. :(


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 9: Shadows of the Past

"… Come…" In the faint shadowy hallway, he could see a certain figure before him, a white hue and almost invisible. Arthur could have jump and scream upon seeing the pale person in front of him but his voice just won't come out.

He soon found himself standing face-to-face to the person. The person didn't seem to mean any harm to him. He has pale white face with a depressed expression, time has marked on his face as well.

"If you're wondering… What lies beneath these castle walls…" The person said, gestured a room that suddenly came out of nowhere, the pathway were also brightly illuminated.

"There are many things people might not known… And there can be more than one truth that was hidden in this country…" He said solemnly. "But some things cannot be avoided… Because of humanity…" He continued. "Once a country full of romance… And a country filled with fantasy… Nobody knows the truth behind this."

Arthur looked into the room trying to make out the scenario in the room but it was just pitch black dark like a black hole.

"But when a person does not learn his mistake… He will repeat it forever… That's why things became unavoidable…" Arthur looked at the person, confused, but dare not to ask a question.

"If your heart is pure enough… If you could be honest of yourself… If you could truly know about yourself… You will understand everything… It's up to you to believe in it or not, the destiny is in your hands all the while." With that, he vanished, leaving a stunning Arthur gazing into the room of emptiness.

_If your heart is pure enough…_ The person's words echoed in his mind. He took a step into the room, then another, and another… His vision was soon brightened up. He shielded his eyes for a moment before finally able to comprehend the scene before him.

It was a room, literally like a room filled with children's stuff. He looked at every stuffed toy that has been chewed off with cotton littered all over them, the wooden toys that was once created by a person's skilfulness were covered with a layer of dust.

The picture before him distorted a little and Arthur could feel his head was spinning. When the dimension returned to the way it was, Arthur noticed something… Different. The toys were no longer old and dusty, the walls and floor has been neatly polished and in the middle of the room sat a young boy who was not more than 10 playing in the middle of the room.

The boy's hair was blonde just like his but was long and wavy like silk. He has royal blue eyes that shine like sapphires. He happily played around his room, unknown to the world outside.

Arthur watched as the boy played with his stuffed toy. The toy has gotten stains of dirt somewhere, which somehow angered the boy. The boy soon thought the toy is filthy and ripped the fabric apart without any mercy. Arthur sweared that this boy probably could ripped a human in the same way and tossed them aside like nothing had happened. He witnessed the boy threw away the abandoned doll onto the floor, pieces of fabric and cotton forming a heap of trash. The boy continued to rummage through his toys, tossing and throwing unwanted things all over the place creating a mess.

Arthur tried to call out for the boy to stop him but the image before him faded and he found himself standing on the hallway he was once before. Both sides of the hallway was illuminated by faint incandescent light, barely enough to light up the dark pathway before him.

He took one of the candle from the hallway and proceeded further into the hallway. Under the darkness, he could hear a faint creeking sound, like someone is crying in there. He wanted to run all the way back to his room but he could care less when his curiousity take over him.

He continued walking down the hallway, passing flights of stairs that stretches endlessly in his path. The more he proceed, the sound has gotten more audible and he somehow noticed the faint light from the end of the staircase.

At the end of the stairs lead to another hallway. Both sides of this hallway is surrounded with waterworks. Clear, still water laid undisturbed at each side, not making any movement or whatsoever.

A large marble but worn out door greeted him at the end of the hallway. He stared at the door for moment before taking a deep breath, preparing for the worst to come. He grabbed the door handle with one hand and a candle in another, making a creak sound as he pushed the aged door open, entering it in the process.

There was no candle light in this room, neither was a ray of light. The furnitures were not in any better conditions as the rest outside. However, there's only one thing that had caught his eyes, a single white rose that stood in a glass jar illuminating a holy hue.

Arthur stood there watching the flower in amaze, never had he seen such a beautiful bloom in his hometown. Captivated by its beauty, he took several steps closer to the glass jar containing the flower to take a better look at it. From different angle, he could see the white rose changed its colour from time to time radiating different aura, such an unnatural beauty.

He was now standing a few inches away from the glass jar, completely absorbed in the beauty of the rose. He realised that even if the rose looks pretty but it is starting to wilt. The stem has become thin and was unable to support the flower itself, the leaves were drooped and were practically bowing their head, the white petals are dropping slowly, one-by-one as time passes by.

Arthur stretched out his hands as an attempt to remove the glass jar so that he could touch the rose but before he could do it, he suddenly felt the room began to rumble a little.

The calm and still waterworks that surrounded the room suddenly turned into a torrent, forming waves and tides making the water surface rough. In the darkness, he could make out the huge waterfall at the end of the room making gushing noise in the room.

Arthur retreated his hands as he scanned around the room, trying to make out the source of the noise but he couldn't locate it. He wants to rush to the door and escape from here but the moment he turns his back to face the door, a creature had blocked his escape.

That creature was ten times taller than him. It was covered in green slimy skin with huge red eyes with slits on it. Huge tusks can be seen from its jaws. The creature was now in four legs, preparing to pounce at Arthur at any time.

"F-Francis?" Arthur strutted but the creature just grunted back without replying and he could feel that things were worse than what he had thought.

* * *

"Kiku, have you seen where Arthur is?" A panicked Elizabeta rushed on the hallway and met up with the nine-tailed fox who was also running out of breath.

"That's what I'm looking for." Kiku replied. "He's just with me a few minutes ago but when I bring him back he was gone."

"How can that be?!" Elizabeta exclaimed. "How can he just begone when he's with you?!"

"What's the commotion here?" Ludwig and several other servants who heard them talking walked up to them. "What happened to Arthur?"

"I hate to say, Ludwig. It seems like Arthur-san had gone missing." Kiku said with a grave and worried expression in his eyes.

"Ve~ He couldn't have run away, could he?" Feliciano asked as well.

"Aiyah, where's that stupid ahen?" Yao suddenly came up with the matryoshka doll at its side. "He's suppose to come for dinner, aru!" The dragon stormed, trying hard not to spew any fire.

"Oh, I don't mind eating his food. Afterall, I love my Yao-yao's food, da?" Ivan said (somewhat) jokingly, unaware of the atmosphere they are now in.

"That's what we are wondering too." Kiku said. "Arthur-san has gone missing."

"Where do you last see him?" Ludwig asked.

"On the way back from the library." Kiku said. "I remembered him standing before the west wing asking me what leads to there. I told him not to go in there…"

"Mein gott, he couldn't have gone in there?!" Ludwig exclaimed.

"Sup dude, if you are all wondering where Artie gone to, no worries cos' the awesome hero saw him just now." Alfred suddenly came out of nowhere.

"Al, this is serious. Arthur may be in trouble." Matthew tried to remind him but went unnoticed.

"You saw him, aru?" Yao asked.

"Yep. Francis gave him a biiiiig surprise and now they are having fun playing all over the place in Francis' room." Alfred said, failing the read the atmosphere.

"He WHAT?!" All the servants widened their eyes at the little sparrow statement.

"Al, I-I think y-you're wrong…" Matthew whispered, trying to tell Alfred about their situation.

"Take us to him!" Elizabeta requested.

Alfred and Matthew soon found themselves flying among stairs and hallway, being chased by the servants, like two birds trying to run away from a hunter. "Mattie, why are we supposed to do this?" Alfred asked. "Because Arthur is in trouble and need help." Was Matthew's reply.

"This is not fun at all. Afterall, I'm the hero and I should be the one to save Arthur instead."

Matthew had to swallow down a chuckle after hearing Alfred's statement. He just don't know how to read the atmosphere and he's cute whenever he's happy. Matthew just love his brother too much to hate him.

* * *

"Get out!" The gigantic creature roared as he pounced towards Arthur. Arthur managed to barely avoid the attack, wounding his right ankle in the process. He hissed in pain and he struggled to stand up.

Francis, in his giant figure form showed no mercy towards Arthur as he tossed the furniture all over the place. Arthur tried to run away from the beast attack but his leg failed him.

Francis soon launched his attack at him. Arthur dodged just in time, falling onto shards of broken glass, he could felt pain in his body and blood flowing out from it. This time, he was completely numb lying on the ground, his mind was spinning and his vision blurred.

"Your highness, stop!" Lucky for him, Ludwig and the rest came just in time. Ludwig, Ivan and Yao came up to stop the beast from revolting further while Kiku, Feliciano and Elizabeta quickly went to help Arthur.

However, Francis was too strong that even the three of them could not hold him down. With a single slash, Ludwig, Ivan and Yao were being thrown aside like garbage. Elizabeta created a spider web made of ice as an attempt to block Francis from getting close to them but the ice was just to fragile to witstand the creature's claws.

Yao quickly came up to shield Arthur as Francis attacked him, leaving a little wounds on the dragon's body. "How dare you do this to a dragon, aru?" Yao asked as he swung his tail that sent Francis flying the opposite direction.

Ludwig, Kiku, Ivan, Yao and Elizabeta managed to surround Francis but never have they known that this was a trap of Francis. As Arthur was left unguarded, the beast leaped up and charged towards Arthur and a vulnerable Feliciano. Feliciano screamed in fear and managed to scramble to the side in time but Arthur ended up being pushed into the waterworks. Francis was about the grab Arthur when Yao managed to get hold of him by wraping its dragon tail around it and Elizabeta managed to immobilize it by freezing his legs.

"Your highness, hold yourself!" Ludwig yelled but to no avail. The creature growled and manage to breakfree from Yao and Elizabeta's grasp and charged them instead but he stopped halfway.

"You have injured many people already." Lukas suddenly appeared with Mathias and Emil by his side. Lukas then mumbled some enchantment, forming magical chains that hold Francis still. The creature struggled with all his might but the attempt was futile.

"_Tilbake til din normale selv_!" Lukas commanded in his language. In split seconds, Francis had shrunken back to his little frog body, lying half-conscious on the floor.

"Ugh… What happen…?" The frog said groggily as he sat up.

"It's a full moon night, your highness." Mathias explained.

"You should know how to hold yourself!" Ludwig lectured. "You'd almost killed Arthur just now!"

"Wh-What?!" Francis suddenly snapped out from his daze, he looked around but noticed Arthur wasn't with the crowd. "Mon dieu… Where's Arthur?"

It was then all the occupants finally realised Arthur's disappearance. Feliciano who was terrified of the incident just now managed to regain his senses and told them, "We need help! Arthur has fall off into the waterwork just now."

"Where?!" Elizabeta asked, afraid for the worst to come.

"Th-There!" Feliciano said gesturing to the part where Arthur had just fallen off.

"Damn, that way leads to the moat at the bottom of the castle!" Francis cursed as he leaped into the water. "If we don't hurry, the creatures down there will eat him!" The servants were surprised at his reaction but decided to save that for later, Arthur is their top priority for now.

* * *

Arthur could felt his body being pulled downward by the strong water current. He tried to oppose the current and swim back to the surface but his injuries drained his strength away. He felt his water entered his lungs, he wanted to take a breath but only ended up filling his mouth with water.

The prison underground was surrounded by green, slimey water that could make people choke at its smell. Many crocodiles and sea serpents lived beneath the darkness, awaiting for prey to fall through so they can enjoy a good meal.

Arthur could make out the eyes of a crocodile or a serpent eyeing at him. He tried to struggle but his legs failed him. In the end, he closed his eyes as tiredness take over him, resigning his dark fate to god.

Francis swam all his way down the pipe to the moat. In his own size as a frog, it is impossible for him to carry Arthur alone. Luckily, Michelle has come all the way to help him as well.

They tried to push Arthur out of the water to the bay but with the creatures eyeing Arthur as their target, it would be hard for them to do as what is planned. So, Michelle will have to distract the crocodiles and serpents while Francis will help Arthur.

"_Desole, mon cher_." Francis said as he tried to push Arthur with all his might. "Please hang on a little longer, _s'il vous plait_…"

Everything seems alright until when one of the serpents realised their plan and went after Francis and Arthur instead of Michelle. "Francis, look out!" Michelle called out but was too late. The gigantic sea serpent swam towards them and bit the frog's leg. Francis yelped in pain and tried to hold himself while keeping Arthur at safety distance away from the serpent.

"They are over there! Hurry!" The rest of the castle servants who had rushed to help came running down the dungeons to assist them. They noticed Francis in the middle of the moat, trying to balance an unconscious Arthur in his arms as he tried to get out of the serpent's grasp. Everyone don't dare to make a move, afraid that a single movement will hurt anyone of them.

It was all of a sudden, the sea serpent let go of Francis and the frog bounced back a little. The serpent did not show any sign of wanting to hurt him, it just swam to the surface and laid at the bay. It seems that Roderich was playing some music so that he could take control of those creatures while they fled to safety.

The rest of the servants and Michelle quickly went up to help Francis carried Arthur on shore. "Great job, Roderich." Elizabeta winked at him. Roderich stopped his music and scowl.

"I would've said, your highness. You sure make a lot of noise today." Roderich complaint. "You completely ruined my mood in composing."

"Please stop, Roderich-san. It's not like we want this to happen." Kiku said. "Now that everyone is fine, we have to take them to rest."

Roderich just scowl. "Seriously, his highness sure lack in behaviour. Someone must teach him some manners."

"That's enough, Roderich!" Ludwig yelled. "If you can talk so much, why don't you teach him instead?!"

"Please stop!" Elizabeta and Kiku pleaded. "Both Arthur and Francis are injured, we have to help them." The two of them stop bickering once after listening to Elizabeta, albeit reluctantly.

"Ve~ Your highness, you are injured." Feliciano said as he noticed the wound on Francis' little leg.

"That can mind later. How's Arthur?" However, Francis cared for Arthur more than he cared for himself, which surprised the servants again.

The little frog takes several quick leaps towards the unconscious English prince. He noticed how pale Arthur's complexion were and there were cut and bruises with blood flowing freely from his body. Guilt gushed his vein, he should have hold himself back so that Arthur won't got hurt.

"Somebody help me to carry him back!" The frog ordered as he tried to lift Arthur who was almost ten times bigger than his size. The servants were surprised at his words but did not complain and helped him to carry Arthur back to his room.

* * *

In his dreams, he found himself in the midst of a beautiful country. This wasn't England, the buildings and cultural of this place is a lot more different from his country. He saw people walking among the bustling streets, selling their food and products.

The scene changed as he found himself in a castle. He realised that this was the castle he was living in but more lively and well-maintained. In the dining table, he saw a young boy with long blonde flaxen hair, wearing the clothes of the upper class sitting among a crowd of noblemen having lunch together.

Everything was alright, until the boy suddenly slammed the table and stood up. The boy was muttering something but he can't hear what he said. It was obvious that the boy was angry, perhaps with his food. The father of the boy scowled at his son but was ignored.

The scene changed again and he found himself in the room he was previously in. There was no waterwork in the room and the furnitures are well-furnished than how it looks just now.

He saw the boy, in his late teens by now, dashing into his room, fear can be seen clouded in his eyes. There was a flash of lightning and he saw the young man screaming and struggling in pain. He was too scared to make out the scene before him and the lights blinded him.

"NOOO!" Arthur found himself woke up with a start. Sweat beaded his forehead and he could feel his heart thumping in his chest.

"Oh, you're awake, Arthur-san. We are so worry about you." Kiku and Lukas was sitting next to his bed with worry expressions clearly visible in their eyes.

"What happened?"

"You entered the west wing and get attacked by Francis. Luckily, Lukas managed to heal you with your magic or the injury will be fatal." Kiku said.

"That remind us, somehow. His highness condition has gotten worse." Lukas brought the topic.

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked, confused.

"Well, ever since the curse begin. Francis-sama's condition will collapse on every full moon." Kiku explained.

"At first, he just felt himself being a little depressed but when time comes, he soon felt so sick that he cannot leave his bed. The worse is to come five years ago, where he found himself gaining the features of a monster." Lukas told them. "He would isolate himself since then, trying to hide his appearance from the public. By now, his episode is far worse than before. He has transformed completely into a monster and having that behaviour of a beast."

"That can't be…" Arthur muttered under the sheets.

"I can only predict one thing. His highness may have tried to fight the demon living inside of him." Lukas said.

"You mean, Francis-sama feeling is trying to overcome the beast within him?"

"Ja. Since his highness was cursed of his behaviour, the beast inside of him was taking the form of his initial behaviour. Now that Francis is trying to betray his initial feeling, the beast will awake to stop Francis' advance."

"I think I understand what you mean. Since the beast within his highness will get stronger under the full moon, Francis will felt himself being drained and have his conscience taken over by the beast. Whenever Francis wants to make a change, the beast will hurt him."

"Indeed." Lukas nodded his head in agreement. "From how I have observed, his highness constant struggle with the beast had been slowly draining the life out of him."

Arthur was silent, surprise that he felt a little sympathy towards the frog. _Why would I fucking care for that bloody frog?!_ He asked himself, realising that he was having a war with himself as well. He cannot tell, why his heart ache when he think about that frog? He has never experience this before. What was that feeling?

* * *

"Say Mattie, it seems like they have feeling for each other. Do you think that our plan has finally work?" What the three failed to notice was the two little birds eavesdropping their conversation at the window. "I'm such a hero! You know, the scene of Francis and Artie just now are sooo amazing. If it wasn't because of me, then they won't care for each other at all."

"Al, stop it. Everything happened just by coincidence, not because of you."

"Oh, c'mon, Mattie. Because I, the hero will make sure the two of them fall in love and have their beautiful kiss under the full moon so that we will return back to normal and live as humans!" Matthew could only sighed at Alfred's cranky jokes as he wished everything to be settled down as soon as possible.

xXx

I'm sooooo sorry for not updating for a while. I have been involved in my school drama not long ago. I am glad that it is finally over and I can finally continue with this story again. Thank you for being so patient, I love you all so much!

Semester break has finally come but I was flooded with homeworks and projects, again… :( But I promise I will try to update this story whenever I have the free time to do so.

It seems like Arthur and Francis finally have feeling for each other. Yay! XD! Shall I write a more romantic fic for the upcoming chapters? Please send in any of your suggestion. I'm sure Froggy Francis will be very romantic that Iggy will completely fall to him.

I just have to write the ending of this chapter. Oh Alfred, you're as blunt as ever but so cute that people can't help agreeing with you. You are my hero of the day! So, what do you think Alfred has in his mind?

Once again, thank you for reading! Love you all so much! Remember to leave a review. TQ! :3

Translation:

_Tilbake til din normale selv _[Norweigian]: Return back to your normal self


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